OTTAWA, Ont. — In recent comments to the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) highlighted the vital role livestock transporters play in Canada’s food supply chain and stressed the importance that all supply chain partners practice due diligence to ensure livestock transporters are properly trained.

“Livestock transport requires specialized skills and knowledge of both transport best practices and animal care,” said Deanna Pagnan, director of the CTA’s Livestock Transporters’ Division. “A national, accountable and transparent training program that is demanded by all levels of the supply chain is necessary to ensure all transporters possess the knowledge and skills required to safely and securely transport animals across Canada.”

CTA also voiced its support for Canada’s traceability initiative provided a major transporter concern is addressed: that transporters should not bear responsibility for animal tagging. Currently, transporters may be subject to enforcement action by CFIA should an animal be transported without a tag. However, initial tagging is the responsibility of the owner of the animal or a facility.

“While CTA does not object to the prohibition to transport animals not bearing an approved tag, it is simply impractical to hold a transporter accountable for ensuring all animals are bearing these tags,” explained Pagnan. “Not only is it difficult to verify the presence of these ear tags visibly, animal pick ups often occur in the dark making it very difficult and in some cases impossible to see the tags. Transporters’ core responsibilities during pick ups involve safely loading and properly sorting animals for transport, not double-checking animals are tagged.”

CTA also suggested to the committee that CFIA take an educational approach to enforcement that is uniform across the country.

“Particularly when dealing with first-time offenders, an educational approach is more appropriate and effective than fines,” said Pagnan.