So we've been working with CFIA to say, 'If you don't have the horsepower to do this, we will help you do that,'" he said. "We didn't want a freeze-up to happen in Prince Edward Island with our soil samples being collected, for example. King said that it was his understanding the CFIA was now hiring half as many inspectors as P.E.I. the inspectors would be best managed under its purview and that it would have to be responsible for the hiring and paying of those inspectors. Department of Agriculture and Land said that before the suspension was announced, the province had offered to improve its potato wart management protocols, including by hiring 30 new soil inspectors to work with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.īut the CFIA told P.E.I.
The fungus is not a threat to human health. It is extremely persistent and it can take more than 40 years to fully disappear from the soil. Potato wart reduces yields and disfigures potatoes, making them unmarketable. "But when you're dealing with international matters such as this, time becomes a challenge and a big worry and largely out of our control, which is very frustrating." "There seems to be, from all sides of the border, a greater emphasis on the success of the science, which we think puts us in a good spot," he said. He said other parties in his discussions have been open to hearing how P.E.I.'s potato wart management plant works, and why the province believes it successfully prevents the spread of the fungus outside the Island. King said he's been in talks with potato producers, industry officials, farmers and politicians on both sides of the border since the suspension was announced. "It's been all hands on deck here for weeks, of course, leading up to this," King said. from taking similar action, which might be more difficult to reverse. fields in October.įederal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Canada issued the suspension to prevent the U.S. The suspension was ordered on Monday by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after the discovery of potatoes infected with potato wart in two P.E.I.
Premier Dennis King says he will "work around the clock" to get a suspension on the export of potatoes from the province to the United States lifted.
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