Mr. Speaker, in February the then auditor general, Denis Desautels, noted that there are major regulatory shortcomings in risk identification and management. He pointed to several problems: increased government reliance on industries to regulate themselves, adoption of safety standards set by other governments, increased public skepticism caused by the slashing of in house government scientific labs and reliance on researchers with links to industry.
In addition, the fact that regulators consider economic consequences to business when they enforce safety regulations does create a potential conflict of interest. A typical case study of the shortcomings of risk assessment is the regulatory process for approving genetically modified foods. This was exposed in a report by the Royal Society. I urge the government to implement the society's recommendations to fix the regulatory system.