Agriculture committee  I'm not familiar enough with all the changes, so we'll have to take that—

Agriculture committee  For PMRA, I would say that we are very strong internationally. We work a lot with the EPA. We actually get most chemicals first here in Canada and the U.S.—sometimes a bit after the U.S.—because of our history of doing joint reviews with the U.S. In my substantive position as chief registrar, I'm responsible for the premarket.

Agriculture committee  I'll ask my colleague to talk about the risk assessment, and then I can supplement afterwards.

Agriculture committee  We haven't heard anything about differences in crops. As you know, in Quebec, an agronomist certifies whether there is a need or not. So we don't necessarily expect to see a difference.

Agriculture committee  We always try to keep an eye on what's going on. It's part of the transformation effort. I don't know if you've heard about it, but we received money from the government to explore how we can improve. One thing we've been looking at is more systematic monitoring and analysis of what's going on.

Agriculture committee  We're aware of the resistance to amitraz. We're not necessarily proactively talking to the company. We pretty much have all the active ingredients registered elsewhere in the world right now. There is some biotech development. Some companies are developing new types of products that they are doing research on to see if they would work, and when they come talk to us, we obviously consider the current situation.

Agriculture committee  I read the transcripts. I believe we have a product with the same active ingredient, but not that particular one. The company obviously needs to seek a registration, and then we would do a risk assessment. Connie, do you have anything to add on your end?

Agriculture committee  Part of the assessment includes a consideration of the potential to develop resistance. We do look at the rate, the frequency. It has to be a rate that works: not too much but also not so little that it could actually accelerate the types of.... In biology, resistance will happen.

Agriculture committee  The growers will usually be in contact with the company to flag such issues, and they will let us know of these things. Sometimes, in terms of timelines, if something is really pressing, we might consider emergency registration. We have a process. I don't think resistance is usually a factor for emergency registration, but there is an option for an accelerated timeline if there's a really pressing issue.

Agriculture committee  I can't speak to exactly what happened, but we do publish performance standards, and they are met in about 95% of cases. The processing time varies depending on the amount of scientific information to be reviewed. For a new active molecule, it can take two years, whereas a label change can take only nine months.

Agriculture committee  To maybe give a bit of history on lambda-cyhalothrin, a re-evaluation happened. In the first consultation we were basically proposing to cancel all uses. We sought more information, as we typically do during a consultation. We also asked the company to prioritize the use. The risk was dietary in nature, for children in particular, in terms of the amount consumed every day or over a lifetime.

Agriculture committee  First, all decisions on pesticides are based on the product, first and foremost. It has to have acceptable value. It has to have acceptable risks. If it doesn't, then that's it. Every product that is registered goes through a risk assessment. It's only going to be registered if it's found acceptable.

Agriculture committee  We've actually prioritized the review. We're hoping that we'll be able to get the decision out in time for the next growing season.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. My name is Frédéric Bissonnette. I'm the acting executive director at Health Canada's pest management regulatory agency, PMRA. I'd like to start by acknowledging that we're meeting today in Ottawa, Ontario, which is the traditional, unceded territory of the Anishinabe and Algonquin people.