The Canadian Government has announced that it will be investing C$162.6m ($128.1m) in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) over the next five years to maintain the integrity of the country’s food safety system.

The new funding will support the CFIA in four key areas, which include export certification to support market access, oversight of imports, domestic oversight and surveillance, and digitisation.

Canada Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau said: “Our Government is investing in the CFIA so that Canada continues to have the best food safety system in the world, with the best science to protect our natural resources and tools that help businesses keep up with the pace of trade.

“It will help CFIA digitise their services and issue export certificates in a timely manner. It also means CFIA will have the tools necessary to guard our natural resources and agriculture sector from the threat of foreign pests and diseases.”

As part of this initiative, the government will be annually investing C$40m ($31.5m) on an ongoing basis to safeguard the food supply, protect the health of plants and animals, and support the Canadian businesses in their export and import activities to overcome the interruptions caused by the pandemic.

The investment is expected to further strengthen the regulatory system and enabling the CFIA to quickly respond to import and export activities, perform surveillance and digitise forms and documents.

The funding will also help the agency to enhance its inspection, surveillance, and oversight programmes to respond to the detection of new food pathogens, invasive species and animal diseases.

The government said that the investment will ensure that the country will have one of the most modern and effective food safety and plant and animal protection systems.