Evidence of meeting #9 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A video is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Precision AI Inc.
There are two things, I think. First, immediately remove the requirement for residual data, because nobody else in the world needs that. The second one is recognizing the data that has already been produced ad nauseam from every other region that's out there. If you can do those two things, I think you can accelerate the process very quickly.
Again, I get back to this concept that it's the science of how the droplets are applied, and not the mechanism by which it's being done.
Liberal
Emma Harrison Liberal Peterborough, ON
I'm sorry, but I'm unaware of which country is leading in this research and science.
Chief Executive Officer, Precision AI Inc.
A lot of that is coming out of the European Union right now. Drone spraying is very big in Asian countries, but I'm not entirely sure of the specific countries, off the top of my head. I do have the resources that I can connect you with later, if you want to follow up.
Liberal
Emma Harrison Liberal Peterborough, ON
That would be fantastic. If you want to submit in writing, as well, some of the regulatory framework that would need to be adjusted, that would be fantastic for our study.
What are the key safety and efficacy considerations when using drones for pesticide application?
Chief Executive Officer, Precision AI Inc.
The main things are drift and evenness of distribution. Drones use different mechanisms. They blow the spray down, which doesn't exist in other types of platforms. It is just uncertain what the drift impact would be on that.
Again, there is lots of research out there that proves it's safe. We just have to be able to recognize that research.
Liberal
Emma Harrison Liberal Peterborough, ON
I'll go back to you again.
What role should technology developers, such as Precision AI, play in forming regulatory decisions?
Chief Executive Officer, Precision AI Inc.
Again, we have lots of data and science. We can't do that testing in Canada, but we can do it in the U.S. If we could submit our testing in the U.S. to Canada and get that recognized and approved, I think that would be fantastic. We'd be happy to do so.
Liberal
Emma Harrison Liberal Peterborough, ON
Mr. Anderson, to what extent do the PMRA and the U.S. equivalent differ in how they consider your pest control products and technology?
Chief Executive Officer, Vive Crop Protection
There was no real difference in the regulatory assessment, other than that Canada has a requirement for value data to be submitted alongside the registration—effectively, proof that it works. The U.S. requires the registrant to have that data, but not for the data to be submitted.
Liberal
Emma Harrison Liberal Peterborough, ON
Thank you.
I think I already know the answer to this, but do you think that Canada should permit agriculture producers to use drones to dispense pesticides labelled for aerial use?
Chief Executive Officer, Vive Crop Protection
Bluntly, I think in some cases they already are. The reality is that, when a regulatory system doesn't move properly, it's an issue.
With the right science, showing that the products can be used safely, I think that's a practice that can be encouraged, because it can dramatically reduce the use of some of these products and reduce any off-target effects and that type of thing.
Liberal
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Anderson, in your opening remarks, you talked about approvals for organic phytosanitary products. We understand there’s an additional restriction that forces farmers to comply with certification. Does it not follow that the regulatory process would be long in such cases?
Chief Executive Officer, Vive Crop Protection
This is an area where I think there's an opportunity, again, for Canada to lead.
When I talk about bio-based products, I'm talking about bio-based crop protection products that are, say, a plant extract, a bacteria or something like that. Generally, these products are designed to have pretty minimal environmental impact. They tend to be quite specific in terms of their control. That's a really powerful advantage associated with these products; it helps us meet sustainability needs alongside productivity needs.
As an example of a way to potentially accelerate regulatory pathways, there are opportunities to take products like that, which have advantageous properties, and accelerate and prioritize them from a regulatory approval point of view—again, not in terms of the data that's required but in terms of where they are in the queue and in what order those products are assessed.
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Okay.
If they have significant advantages, these products can also be used in other applications for products that are not organic.
Can these products be used in other types of applications as well? I’m assuming the answer is yes, isn’t it?
Chief Executive Officer, Vive Crop Protection
The products that we're designing that are bio-based products are used in broadacre crops in the U.S. for non-organic applications. The reason is that we often combine them with, say, a traditional synthetic chemical product that a grower might use, which reduces the rate of the synthetic product, giving them the sustainability benefit of the bio-based product. That can be a huge advantage to driving adoption, and it is really quite exciting.
Bloc
Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Okay.
Mr. Tyler McCann, you talked about accountability, an issue that has come up multiple times at this committee. As you know, it’s not easy within the government, even though ministers are supposed to be responsible. There are three departments involved in…. I spoke about reciprocal standards earlier. This falls under three different organizations, and the second one is always the culprit.
I’d also like us to move forward, but how can we do that?
Managing Director, Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute
I think we need a number of solutions. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. That’s one of the reasons you made six recommendations. However, this would require leadership and action. As I said, the Prime Minister and the Clerk of the Privy Council have said they were going to make a decision and they were going to take action, but we’ve not yet seen anything along those lines.
Bloc
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Coteau
Thank you very much.
This ends this portion of our meeting.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here. It was quite interesting, and we learned a lot. I appreciate your time. If you have anything else to submit, you can pass it to the clerk. Thank you very much.
We're going to talk a little bit about our schedule. We have three things on our plate right now: the spent fowl, the code of conduct, and the regulatory pieces. Next week, we committed to the first one on Monday, the spent fowl. On Thursday, we committed to going back to the code of conduct.
On the code of conduct, we had only two meetings that we committed to in the motion. Is that correct? Is this going to be our third meeting or our second meeting?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Coteau
Is that going to be enough for us, the two meetings? Are we good?
By next Thursday, when we do the second meeting, we're pretty much done with the study.
Yes, go ahead.
October 23rd, 2025 / 5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dave Epp Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
How many of the witnesses who were on the list will that accommodate?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Michael Coteau
How many do you have on your list now who have been submitted? Is it a long list?
Do we have more witnesses than for just one more meeting?
Liberal
