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WINDSOR, ONT., TORONTO — Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised on Wednesday to launch an independent probe into the cross-country listeriosis outbreak that has already killed at least 13 people, saying as a father of young children he remains concerned about how it could have happened.
“I know the company says they take full responsibility, but I'm very troubled by this. I'm troubled as a father whose family buys and uses some of these products,” Mr. Harper said of the outbreak that forced Maple Leaf Foods to announce a massive recall of products from a Toronto plant that had produced contaminated lunch meats.
“I'm also troubled as the head of a government that has made substantial investments in our food safety system.”
The outbreak has hit at an awkward time for Mr. Harper, whose party is preparing for a widely anticipated election campaign expected to begin Sunday. His pledge to launch an investigation is an effort to ease concerns about whether Ottawa has properly handled the matter and reduce its potential to damage the Tories. The controversy comes just as the Harper government was preparing to hand the industry greater responsibility for meat inspection.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks at the Ford Essex Engine plant on Wednesday. (David Chidley/Canadian Press)
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So far, the deaths from the outbreak do not appear to have hurt the Conservatives in opinion surveys, but they could become an issue in the campaign, pollster Greg Lyle has warned.
Mr. Harper made a special point of announcing the planned listeriosis probe Wednesday at the end of a pre-election stop in Windsor, Ont., where he pledged $80-million to help Ford Motor Co. of Canada restart an idling engine-assembly plant. He raised the matter himself after receiving no questions on the outbreak.
The Prime Minister said an inquiry would begin once the infections had subsided. He said there would be “an arm's-length investigation to make sure we get to the bottom, on the government side, on the bureaucratic side, of exactly what transpired and to make sure as we go forward and we make changes to our system that this kind of thing can't happen again.”
His description of himself as a concerned father who buys luncheon meat for his family is exactly the picture the Conservatives want to paint in an election campaign expected to begin Sunday. The Tories plan to frame Mr. Harper as a minivan-driving hockey dad from the suburbs and chief rival Liberal leader Stéphane Dion as an elitist professor who has difficulty articulating a vision, making decisions and relating to Canadians.
Reacting to Mr. Harper's pledge for an inquiry into the listeriosis outbreak, agricultural critic Wayne Easter dismissed the move as a diversionary tactic, saying it's the Conservatives' handling of the outbreak that should be the focus of an investigation.
The outbreak is expected to be on the agenda Thursday, when federal Health Minister Tony Clement meets with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Quebec City. It will be their first meeting since December, 2006.
So far, the nationwide outbreak has led to 38 confirmed cases and 13 deaths in five provinces. Another six deaths are under investigation. Ontario has been hit hardest, with 29 confirmed cases and 11 deaths. The average age of the victims in the province is 77, and nearly all of them lived in a nursing home or were hospitalized when they became ill.
Wednesday's auto-sector announcement – which the Tories say will create or keep alive nearly 800 Ford jobs for four years – was the first direct cash the Harper government has given to auto makers since taking power 30 months ago.
The campaign-style announcement was a bid to shore up support for regional Tories such as Essex MP Jeff Watson and quell charges that the Conservatives have failed to do enough to salve the pain being felt by Ontario's battered manufacturing sector.
Mr. Harper denied it was electioneering. “This is not money that is being thrown around on the eve of an election,” he said, noting the cash comes from the $250-million Automotive Innovation Fund that was in Budget 2008 and approved by Parliament.
The Prime Minister, whose party had attacked corporate welfare in opposition, also dismissed the notion that the announcement was a subsidy for Ford. The money is a repayable contribution that Ford will have to return over 20 years, officials said.
As recently as January, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had criticized the Ontario government's willingness to provide aid to help reopen the Essex plant. “Quite frankly, politicians aren't very good at picking business winners and losers,” he said at the time.
But Mr. Harper said Ottawa has an obligation to pony up cash when companies like Ford make big investments in Ontario, such as the $730-million Renaissance project it's undertaking in conjunction with the Windsor engine plant.
He vowed that the new project – which is also receiving provincial money – will endure rather than close down prematurely. “The last thing I want to be doing is be standing around a year from now and saying that ‘We put some taxpayers' money on the table into some plant that some company's cutting jobs in.' We've seen that in the past. We're not going to see that with this new program.”
The federal cash will be $42.3-million in initial contributions to assemble leading-edge and more-fuel efficient engines at the Essex plant. Ottawa will contribute another $23.2-million for a Ford research centre that will develop new diesel and powertrain technology for autos.
The federal government will kick in another $14.5-million to the engine-production project if “market conditions [are] … favourable” and Ford invests a specified further amount.
Canadian Auto Workers union president Buzz Hargrove said he is furious that it took the Conservatives more than 21/2 years to finally support auto-industry investments that merely retain jobs and don't create any new employment. Although Windsor workers should be relieved at the news, he said, the federal announcement just days before an election call is simply an attempt by Mr. Harper to buy votes in Windsor.
“They've shown no sensitivity to the problems of the industry,” he said.
