Madam Speaker, I am always happy to lower the boom, but it is nice that it is on the headset.
It is an honour to rise virtually tonight on a snowy night in Ottawa to pursue a question I originally asked on October 25. It related to the regulation and management of pesticides in this country, particularly a class of chemicals referred to as “neonicotinoid insecticides”. I have to say that the response from the hon. member for Ottawa Centre was excellent. I almost felt it was wrong to ask the question in Adjournment Proceedings, but events have continued to move ahead on this file.
What I raised in question period on that day referenced an in-depth investigation by one of Canada's better investigative journalists and newspapers. That is the National Observer, which is online. They documented that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency of the Government of Canada had colluded with Bayer, the manufacturer of neonicotinoid insecticides. We used to think of Bayer only as the nice provider of aspirin, but it is the producer of a lot of pesticides. It undermined the research of a Canadian researcher, Christy Morrissey, and prolonged the use of chemicals that we know to be dangerous to human health and that science knows are also particularly dangerous for pollinators. We desperately need pollinators for the health of ecosystems and for agriculture. If we lose them, it will be a multi-billion dollar hit to the economy. This is not to mention that these chemicals are dangerous, as I said, to human health and the environment.
We should have banned these pesticides by now, but I have to say, it appears that between Health Canada and Environment Canada, the Government of Canada has been investigating the role of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency in response to my question, including with the pesticide manufacturer. That was documented in a further article by the same researcher from the National Observer. On the same day that I asked the question, the journalist in question, Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, published an article entitled “Health Canada probes claim that government officials helped pesticide company overturn a ban”. There is a series of articles, for those who wish to look, that are looking at the deep connection, the collusion between pesticide manufacturers and our regulatory agency in protecting pesticides instead of protecting human health and the environment.
In the debate at Adjournment Proceedings tonight, which I am honoured to participate in again, I really hope that the Government of Canada is ready to step forward. Since I asked my question, a huge coalition of environmental and health protection groups, with independent scientific support, have been asking the federal Minister of Health to at least temporarily ban the toxic insecticides known as neonicotinoid insecticides until an independent panel of experts can determine whether the benefits outweigh the known risks. Of course, no one can call an insecticide or any toxic chemical safe. I really hope that the Minister of Health, or whichever parliamentary secretary is on hand tonight, can give us an update on this process and encourage us to believe that we can, at long last, move for at least a temporary ban on one of them. That is imidacloprid, which is the most—