The often-controversial Pest Management Regulatory Agency faces another bout of political scrutiny after a scathing report from the federal environment commissioner last week.
“I am appalled by what I have seen,” environment commissioner Johanne Gélinas told a news conference after tabling a report on the PMRA in Parliament. “My confidence is shaken.”
Her report complained that PMRA failures include:
- Allowing old pesticides to stay on the market even though they have not been tested to make sure they are safe by modern standards.
- Lagging behind its schedules on retesting. Although all products approved before 1994, including 405 active ingredients, are supposed to be re-evaluated by 2006, “by March 2003 only 1.5 percent of the active ingredients had been fully re-evaluated.”
- Missing targets to speed up evaluation of new products.
- Too readily giving temporary permits to import chemicals that have not received full health and safety testing. “Of new pesticide registrations in 2001-02, 58 percent were temporary.”
- Having little or no knowledge about whether pesticide purchasers, including farmers and lawn owners, use the product properly and according to label instructions.
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“The range of weaknesses we identified raises serious questions about the overall management of the health and environmental risks associated with pesticides,” Gélinas wrote in her report to Parliament.
She was asked if pesticide products on the market are safe. “We don’t know the answer and that’s the problem,” she replied.
Commons environment committee chair and former environment minister Charles Caccia immediately indicated he wanted to call acting PMRA executive director Wendy Sexsmith and possibly deputy health minister Ian Green before the committee. The agency is scheduled to appear before the Commons agriculture committee in late October.
The agency’s formal response to the commissioner’s complaints was to assure that it is aware of the criticisms and either has fixed the problem or is in the process.
In the Commons, health minister Anne McLellan said she recognizes the challenges facing the agency in the evaluation and re-evaluation of files. But she said the health and agriculture departments are giving the PMRA more resources to do the job more quickly.
“I can reassure Canadians that we take our obligations in relation to their health and safety very seriously,” she told Canadian Alliance environment critic Bob Mills.
McClellan said the situation is not as dire as the report suggests. She said 61 active ingredients have been re-evaluated and many products have been or will be phased out of the market.
“Denying the problem doesn’t mean there isn’t one,” Mills shot back.
Cam Dahl, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada, said many of the evaluation and delay issues raised by the environment commissioner echo farmer complaints that they cannot get timely access to pesticides that American farmers have.
However, he said Gélinas missed the mark when she left the impression pesticides on the market may be a health hazard.
“We have every faith in the safety of the products on the market,” he said. Dahl argued that even the chemicals that have not been re-evaluated or have been allowed in on temporary permit have been tested in other jurisdictions.
He said PMRA has a “systemic” problem that requires cabinet intervention. “I think it needs ministerial involvement and that is something that has been lacking.”
Gélinas reminded reporters that it is the fourth investigation of the pesticide regulatory system in 15 years and every one has found deep problems. She said the PMRA keeps insisting the problems have been fixed.
