They came today after I filed an Access-to-Information request in 2011 and then an appeal to the Information Commissioner because not all the documentation was released.
The documents show that inspectors at Lashbrooks identified
black spots on eggs coming out of storage at Flash Freight north of Guelph.
The caption on one of a number of pictures of the stored
eggs indicates they were held with “NO REFRIGERATION”.
That is not
substantiated in the CFIA correspondence between inspectors.
What is revealed is that Bob Armstrong asked Lindsay Dyce
for “any evidence I can include with the letter” to Gray “regarding storing eggs
off site under acceptable conditions.”
Armstrong says he and another inspector visited the storage
facilities the morning of March 2, 2010, and found “It was not very impressive.
One of the coolers they were storing the eggs in had very dirty Styrofoam panels
covering the walls.”
He said they did not find any rodent droppings, but that
they also did not see any bait stations in the facility.
Dyce reported earlier that same day that he had found evidence
of a “smeared stain like residue and footprints as well as partially eaten eggs
on top trays."
He said management at Flash Freight think the footprints and
eaten eggs were from a stray cat they couldn’t get rid of until they emptied a
room a few days earlier.
What the documents do not reveal is why Gray and Lashbrook
needed to store so many eggs.
A few weeks earlier, the company used supplementary import
permits to bring in eggs from the United States.
That’s a pattern that has been familiar in the Ontario egg
industry – egg graders claiming they can’t get enough eggs for the Christmas
market and obtaining supplementary import permits from the federal government
so they can import from the United States without paying huge tariffs.
Then in January, the companies declare they have too many
eggs and the farmer-funded marketing boards are forced to underwrite the cost
of diverting them to egg processors.
