Evidence of meeting #10 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was product.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
We can get back to you with the timelines. My estimate is that we said it would be about 12 months, but I don't recall.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
I'd appreciate it if you could do that for us.
I want to touch base on something you mentioned earlier about ClearOut 41 Plus. The perception is that the manufacturer is going to be distributing this both north and south of the border.
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
That's our understanding from the Canadian registrant, who is the manufacturer in the U.S. as well.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
And we're assuming that the price is going to be the same?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
We don't assume that.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
So wouldn't it be pertinent for us to continue with this program until we know the price is going to be the same? Isn't the purpose of this program in the first place—to quote the actual committee motion—to make a “more producer-friendly Grower-Requested Own Use program”?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
I'm not a financial person, but if the U.S. person chooses to market the product in Canada and bear the expense of marketing and distributing it in Canada, my assumption would be they're going to put it at a competitive price; otherwise they've incurred a loss if they're making it available to Canadian growers in Canada but have all of the sales happen in the United States.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Isn't that the reason we have this program in the first place, because there were manufacturers in the United States not doing exactly that? Isn't that the reason the industry and the growers I talked to are demanding that we expand this program, not shrink it—because there are products being sold in the United States for significantly below what they're being sold for in Canada?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
But not where, at the same time, farmers can import the product.
This summer, up until June of this year, farmers have a choice: buying at the Canadian retailer or going south to bring it in. All along, the OUI program was intended to make sure it was this choice that created the price discipline.
Conservative
Conservative
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for your warm welcome. I am very pleased to be here as the Bloc Québécois's deputy critic for agriculture and agri-food. I am very proud to be working with you on this committee for three reasons.
I represent a constituency that is strongly agricultural in character. Saint-Hyacinthe is a centre of agri-food technology. I am also very happy to be working with a person of the calibre of André Bellavance. I know that I going to learn a lot here. In addition, I am the granddaughter of an agronomist and I lived on a pig farm for more than seven years. Agriculture is close to my heart.
I know that you appeared before the committee at about the same time last year. Given that I have only been a member of the committee for a short time, I will essentially limit my questions to the ones that have been suggested for us. But I will begin with a question that is not in the material but that concerns me. We have a lot of studies of products from the United States, but more and more products come from other countries.
Are we currently studying products imported from other countries in the same way as we have done for products from the United States?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
In terms of inspection and enforcement activities, PMRA's responsibility is only for the import of the pesticides themselves, not for the import of agricultural products on which pesticides have been used, typically food products. That's the responsibility of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
We do work with that agency to look at what priorities might be for inspection programs and for import programs, and we do have discussions with the United States about what's coming in from where, as do colleagues directly in the CFIA with their U.S. counterparts. They will target an area if there is a concern that an area, a country, or a region is not conforming to Canadian standards. They may target an inspection program at that country or region.
Bloc
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Well, when we talk about products imported from the United States, we are talking about harmonization. The matter has been studied, but were the studies very recent?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
It's difficult to know what nature of study you're referring to. On an annual basis, almost on an ongoing basis, we're looking at our maximum residue limits and the United States maximum residue limits. Pretty much on an ongoing basis, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is comparing their results with American results.
I don't know if that is the nature of the studies you might be interested in.
Bloc
Ève-Mary Thaï Thi Lac Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
We have inspected a dozen products in Canada and about half of them have been rejected. For the 2007-2008 year, what were the reasons for the rejections?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
As I responded to Mr. Storseth, of the 12, we compared the U.S. formulation with the Canadian formulation and found that in four of them there were chemical differences that caused a difference in how human health or environmental risk would be affected. So four of the 12 were eliminated for that reason. On two of the 12 that were found to be equivalent, the registrant brought up the fact that they had patents protecting those products. We excluded them, and then we were down to six.
Conservative
Carol Skelton Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
Thank you very much.
I really appreciate you being here today.
It's my understanding that the Province of Alberta has requested an emergency registration for 2% liquid strychnine for this year. I'd like to know the status of that application.
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
We approved that emergency registration request just at the end of last week.
Conservative
Carol Skelton Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
For other provinces that would appreciate having the availability to it, will it be available to them?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
The way our emergency registration system works is that the provinces themselves make application to us for emergency registration. The Province of Saskatchewan was the first to do so. The Province of Alberta is the one we just approved at the end of last week. There are conditions on that emergency registration. There's a definition of “infestation”, and the province has to satisfy itself that this situation has occurred, and it has to look after things like distribution of the liquid strychnine. There are conditions that apply to Saskatchewan and Alberta, and if other provinces are interested, they'd have to meet those conditions as well.
Conservative
Carol Skelton Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK
Mr. Chair, Mr. Storseth had some more questions he wanted to follow up. I will give him the rest of my time to do so.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
One of the reasons for the GROU program, I believe, is to enhance the ability of growers to access products south of the border. Is that correct?
Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency, Department of Health
The original intent, and the continuing intent, is to have price discipline in the Canadian market.
