CropLife Canada statement on Treasury Board’s red tape review

CropLife Canada is pleased to see the Government of Canada moving forward with its red tape review exercise. Its efforts to ‘streamline services, cut duplication, and reduce costs for Canadians and businesses’ come at a critical time for the agriculture industry, and the plant science sector specifically.

If Canada is to become the strongest economy in the G7 as per the ambitions of the current government, it will need the agriculture and food sector to flourish and grow. The sector already accounts for 7 per cent of the country’s GDP with opportunities to double its contributions over the next 10 years.

Much of the opportunity lies in low hanging fruit. For example, no-cost measures to improve the efficiency of the regulatory system and ensure farmers have timely access to the innovative new seed and crop protection tools they need to increase productivity and compete in the global marketplace.

While many of the recommendations in the red tape review progress reports from Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) related to plant science innovations are a step in the right direction, there’s an urgent need to go further and for bold, decisive action from the government.

When it comes to the PMRA, the challenges are particularly acute. Annually, there are currently half as many submissions of new products going into the PMRA as there were a decade ago and yet the timelines for approval have nearly doubled. This significantly diminishes Canada’s reputation as a global regulatory leader and disadvantages Canadian farmers.

As the government looks to drive more investment and innovation in Canada, we must ensure that the regulatory system is positioned to handle an increase in new product submissions. This will require smart, modern regulatory approaches that are as innovative as the products they are designed to regulate.

Now is the time for the government to aggressively pursue returning the PMRA to a place where it delivers on its core performance commitments. The plant science industry stands ready and willing to work with the government to create a path forward where we have a world-leading regulatory system for plant science innovations that maintains high standards for health and safety while enabling timely access to new products.