Pest control product legislation to be unveiled in Parliament this year will provide a better basis for quickly approving more environmentally friendly products, health minister Allan Rock promised last week.
He told the House of Commons environment committee Feb. 17 that new legislation to set the rules for the Pest Management Regulatory Agency will include more openness to public involvement and more public information about the reasons PMRA has approved a product.
“We want to strengthen the re-evaluation process,” he said.
And the government wants to make the system of regulating, testing and approving agricultural chemicals more open and transparent to a public concerned about chemical pollution.
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“Obviously, public (acceptance) is important and it can only be achieved if people are involved,” Rock told MPs.
The environment committee has held six months of hearings on the performance of the agency and Rock said he will await its report and recommendations, expected in March, before finishing the legislative rewrite.
Meanwhile, he came under fire last week from MPs who believe the PMRA still is too slow approving chemicals farmers need, too slow in evaluating and removing old chemicals from the market and under-funded.
He also faced skepticism from some urban Liberal MPs hostile to the idea that PMRA should be required to “balance” farmer needs for chemicals against public health and environmental issues.
Committee chair Charles Caccia said the emphasis should be on making sure chemicals are not harmful. Industry needs should be secondary.
He compared the PMRA mandate of protecting health and the environment while helping the industry have access to chemicals to “riding two horses galloping in opposite directions.”
Liberal Karen Kraft-Sloan saw it in the same stark way.
“You have to decide if you are protecting health as a priority or not,” she said.
Rock insisted the two goals are not contradictory. The farm industry is essential to Canada and it needs access to chemicals that protect crops from pests and weeds.
The goal is to regulate those products to make sure they are as low-risk as possible.
– WILSON
