More than three years ago, the federal government initiated a process to “transform” aspects of Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Focused on four main pillars — transparency, real-world data, modernization, and targeted reviews — the process has included convening working groups and holding consultations.
CropLife Canada has been part of these working groups and submitted comments and concerns and data over several consultation intakes; however, major questions and concerns have not been answered or addressed, says Pierre Petelle, president and CEO of CropLife Canada.
Petelle says that even though there’s been several years of work and millions of dollars spent on the process, the federal government appears to be moving ahead with its initial platform, unchanged. That’s a problem, he says, as it appears the federal government is driving ahead on these “transformational” changes on pre-determined timeline, while many of the ideas are “half-baked,” with no clear implementation route.
Although the process was initiated long before the current trade crisis with the United States’ Trump administration, Petelle says that the apparent rushing of these changes would only make Canada’s already tedious regulatory market worse. He says that PMRA’s proposed changes would make it more expensive and more difficult to register products in Canada versus the U.S., for an already smaller market.
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