National Farmers. Union President Phil Mount is worried about the federal government’s plan to stop automatically reviewoing the safety of pesticides every 15 years.
He worries it may reduce Canadian access to markets such as the European Union which has stiffer requirements than Canada.
But Pierre Petelle, president and chief executive officer of Crop Life Canada which speaks for companies making and selling pesticides, defended the proposal that is contained in the federal government’s omnibus Bill C-30.
And he raised a different issue: there are other countries such as the United States that are approving new pesticides before they receive clearances from Pesticide Regulatory Directorate which is within the Health Canada department.
Mount said “eliminating mandatory pesticide re-evaluation is one of those very low bars that that is required by many of these new markets that we’re theoretically looking for. It’s going to do nothing but harm.”
Mount also criticized the government for “hiding” the new regulations in the omnibus bill.
Mount argued the changes in C-31 were designed behind closed doors without input from producers nor the special scientific advisory committee at Health Canada.
Petelle said concerns about Bill C-31 may be misleading. The Pest Management Regulatory Directorate will still be required to determine if risks associated with products have changed so “no one’s scrapping anything.”
Data that suggests a problem with a product would still initiate a review, and that could happen at any time, he said.
