Mr. Chair, clauses 217 to 219 propose changes to improve efficiency and remove some duplication in the Pest Control Products Act.
Just as a background, pesticides in Canada are regulated by Health Canada to protect health and the environment. Products undergo a pre-market scientific risk assessment before being authorized. Once registered, products are subject to cyclical re-evaluations. They're also subject to special reviews if new information comes to light about a registered product.
The issue revolves around the Pest Control Products Act, which requires a special review to be conducted every time another OECD member country removes all uses of a pest control product for health or environmental reasons. The way this is written, it can result in multiple reviews of the same issue having to be conducted, often at the same time.
The amendment proposed would allow Health Canada to combine multiple reviews into one special review, or to examine the issue as part of an ongoing special review or re-evaluation, provided it could be incorporated early enough in the review process to allow for a scientific assessment and consultation on the decision, or in some cases, not to conduct a review at all, if the basis of the foreign decision had already been considered previously by Health Canada and there was no new information.
In summary, this should provide some savings for both government and industry, if we can remove the requirement to do these duplicate special reviews.