Question Period Note: Tabling of the Auditor General’s Report on the Performance Audit of Protecting Canada’s Food System

Tabling of the Auditor General’s Report on the Performance Audit of Protecting Canada’s Food System

Canadians want to know that Government spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was carried out in a fair and transparent manner.

The Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund was implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support Canada’s fish and seafood processing sector.

The Department agrees with the recommendation made by the Auditor General to ensure that future food-related initiatives measure and report on contributions to sustainable development and to Gender-Based Analysis Plus.

The Department has developed an action plan in response to the Auditor General’s report. The action plan identifies timelines to address the recommendation as part of our commitment to continuous improvement and accountability to Canadians.

• The final audit report for the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) Performance Audit on Protecting Canada’s Food System is expected to be tabled in the Auditor General’s Fall Reports on December 9, 2021.
• The Auditor General’s report on Protecting Canada’s Food System identified some concerns with measuring the contributions of the program related to various outcomes, regional differences in program design, and reporting on results; however, of the four recommendations made in the report, only one implicates the Department.
• The recommendation is aimed at ensuring future food-related initiatives measure and report on contributions to sustainable development and to Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) to improve assessment and outcomes.
• The Department agrees with the recommendation and has prepared a management action plan to identify activities and outcomes with associated timelines to address the recommendation.
• The OAG completed its reporting phase and submitted its Transmission (DM) draft report to the department on September 24, 2021.
• The objective of the audit was to determine whether selected federal organizations protected Canada’s food system during the COVID-19 pandemic by effectively designing, delivering, and managing programs to reduce food insecurity in Canada, and to support the resilience of food processors in the agri-food and fish and seafood sectors.
• On September 18, 2020, the OAG advised the Department via a letter of notification that they would be conducting a Performance Audit on Protecting Canada’s Food System for tabling in the Fall 2021 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada.
• This audit work is part of a suite of audits conducted by the OAG to address Parliament’s request for audits of government spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• As part of its broad response to the pandemic, the federal government announced a wide range of new programs, along with additional funding to existing programs.
• Among these, the OAG examined three initiatives that aimed to reduce food insecurity for Canadians, including in vulnerable and isolated communities, and two initiatives that aimed to support the resilience of Canada’s food-processing capacity.
• The Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund (CSSF) was one of the programs and measures selected by the OAG for this audit.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada received $62.5 million for the new CSSF which is delivered by the Regional Development Agencies to support the resiliency of the food supply capacity in the fish and seafood sector.
• The role of the Auditor General is important to Canadians because she calls to the attention of the House of Commons any cases in which she has observed, for example, that money has been expended other than for purposes for which it was appropriated by Parliament, or that money has been expended without due regard to economy or efficiency.

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