Mr. Speaker, the government made the commitment to reform the pest management regulatory system to make it more responsive to stakeholder needs while at the same time protecting the health and environment of Canadians. We are doing so.
The fact that cost recovery would be used to implement the reformed program was agreed to by the industry and farmers as long ago as 1990.
I want to inform the member that although the United States system appears to cost less, this is quite frankly not the case. All states, except Alaska, charge fees on top of the federal fees charged.
California alone for example recovers about $27 million based on $1.2 billion in pesticide sales. In contrast, the PMRA plans to charge $15.3 million for $1.4 billion in pesticide sales. That is almost half as much or put differently, there is $1 for every $93 of sales in Canada as opposed to $1 for every $44.50 worth of sales in California.
The member will be pleased to know that the cost of the reformed pest management regulatory system in Canada is very competitive with the costs of other countries such as the United States and Britain. The Canadian cost per registered product is 15 per cent less than in the United States and 30 per cent less than in the United Kingdom.
The member should be aware of the own use import program. This program allows farmers to import products for their own use when they consider the registered products on the Canadian market to be uncompetitively priced by manufacturers.
We are putting in place an efficient regulatory system to serve the needs of all Canadians wherever they reside in Canada.