Food safety regulations and other major city legislation remained stalled yesterday as a special session of the Taipei City Council drew to a close.
The session was called earlier this month after the council failed to pass any of the proposed autonomous regulations during the regular session.
While the city government has proposed a broad range of legislation, including establishing a public housing corporation, zoning regulation revisions and fines for tearing down illegal constructions, the only legislation to pass the special session was new construction safety labor regulations.
New food safety autonomous regulations were pushed into the next council session despite being viewed as the legislation most likely to pass given public concern over a series of food safety scandals.
The regulations would have specified deadlines for faulty foodstuffs to be reported and removed from shelves, how long violations should be publicized, as well as allowing the city government to require companies to submit regular reports on ingredient sourcing.
Taipei City Councilor Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said there was still controversy over certain sections, including the time frame the violation would be publicized, as well as new reporting requirements for caterers.
He said the city government failed to provide quantitative data on the effects of the new regulations, and should provide an explanation of whether the regulations could be effectively enforced.
Taipei City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) of the People First Party said she was surprised that the food safety autonomous regulations had not passed, attributing the delay to the failure of the city government to lobby individual councilors.
Because the city government had not provided a timely explanation of the regulations to councilors outside of the Legislation Committee, many councilors had concerns about the regulations when they were brought before the council, she said.
She added that the lack of communication was exacerbated by the late submission of the regulations, as well as the lack of opportunity for councilors to participate in their drafting.
In addition to the food safety autonomous regulations, only revisions to tree protection regulations and higher penalties for tearing down illegal constructions were passed by the city’s Legislation Committee, with all other major legislation on hold.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said that Department of Health Commissioner Huang Shier-chieg (黃世傑) had met with every city councilor individually to lobby for their support.
According to the city government’s tallies, none of the city’s 63 city councilors have expressed “opposition” to the food safety regulations, while 21 have “no opinion” and all others expressed their support, he said.
While the regulations’ passage may been delayed as a result of their late submission in May, the later submission date was necessitated by city moves to increase civic participation, such as establishing a committee to draft the regulations and holding public hearings, he said.
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