The Pest Management Regulatory Agency has signaled it is making headway on issues it has been heavily criticized about in the past.
Executive director Karen Dodds said in an appearance before MPs last week that the agency is working better with farmers, has ended a backlog of products seeking registration and is moving to ensure Canadian farmers have access to the same chemicals as their competitors.
She said she realizes Canadian farmers are hurt when they lack access to chemicals available in the United States.
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Dodds said more joint reviews are being done with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, work is under way to create common labels for products sold throughout North America and a push is on to make it easier to get minor use products into Canada.
“We’re continuing to seek ways to further harmonize with the U.S. EPA in order to keep closing the pesticide technology gap that can hinder our growers’ global competitiveness,” Dodds told MPs during a June 8 appearance before the House of Commons agriculture committee.
Her appearance, the reports of progress and the praise heaped onto the new face of the PMRA by politicians and industry representatives were a far cry from the days when the agency’s appearance before committee was a long, hostile recitation by MPs of problems their constituents were having with the regulator.
This time, Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter said he has been hearing “much better reports back on the PMRA than we heard a couple of years ago.”
Manitoba Conservative James Bezan complimented Dodds for recognizing that agency decisions on the availability of chemical products is an issue for farm survival.
Lorne Hepworth, president of CropLife Canada, told MPs the agency has made greater strides in working with industry and has successfully reduced the time it takes to review and decide on new product applications. Much of that comes from greater co-operation between Canada and the U.S. in joint reviews and in accepting the results of research already done by others.
“It is clear the leadership of Dr. Dodds has had a positive impact on the agency and its efforts,” he said.
“I think this is maybe the first time I have appeared before (the committee) when we didn’t have the issue of timelines in our brief.”
PMRA officials said the backlog of product approvals in limbo has been all but eliminated and the average decision time of 18 months on applications is comparable to or better than most competitor countries.
They said officials from Canada and the U.S. are developing a priority list of products that could qualify for two-nation approval, many of them minor-use products.
Dodds said the first North American Free Trade Agreement labels that will allow products approved in more than one NAFTA country to trade freely across the border should be approved this year.
She also credited a PMRA outreach to farmers as a key ingredient in turning around the performance and image of the agency as the government bureaucracy farmers love to hate.
She said it also helps that environmental groups are realizing faster approval of new chemicals is beneficial because they replace older products that are more harmful to the environment and human health.
