Canada’s regulatory authority will re-evaluate hundreds of agrochemicals during 2023-2028

Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) announced the Re-evaluation and Special Review Work Plan 2023-2028.

This work plan includes the proposed and final decisions published since 1 April 2023, all open re-evaluations and special reviews, as well as new re-evaluations expected to be initiated in this time frame (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2028). This document presents updates to the information last published in Re-evaluation Note REV2022-01, Pest Management Regulatory Agency Re‑evaluation and Special Review Work Plan 2022-2027.

Health Canada regulates pesticides in Canada, with the primary objective of protecting the health of Canadians and the environment. A pesticide may only be sold or used in Canada if it has been registered or otherwise authorized under the authority of the Pest Control Products Act. Health Canada uses a rigorous science-based risk assessment approach to ensure that the product meets health and environmental protection standards and has value.

As part of the post-market program, registered pesticides are re-evaluated on a cyclical basis to determine their continued acceptability. Pesticides may also be re-evaluated as a result of changes in the information required or the procedures used by Health Canada to determine that the pesticide meets current health, environment and value standards.

The re-evaluation process is described in Regulatory Directive DIR2016-04, Management of Pesticides Re-evaluation Policy. In addition, a special review may be initiated at any time to address the identified aspect(s) of concern, and a special review is triggered only under certain circumstances. Special reviews differ from re-evaluation in that a special review is intended to examine only specific aspects of a pesticide. Additional information on special reviews can be found in the PMRA Guidance Document, Approach to Special Reviews of Pesticides.

As required under the Pest Control Products Act, Health Canada publishes all post-market proposed decisions for public consultation. Following consultation, comments and information submitted by the public and other stakeholders are considered before Health Canada issues a final decision. Stakeholders are encouraged to stay informed of upcoming consultations, and new initiations, for active ingredients by visiting the Pesticides section of Canada.ca.

This five-year work plan may change in response to workload and emerging issues that require priority action. While this work plan will be updated annually, during the course of the year interested stakeholders can monitor the PMRA’s Public Registry to view the announcement of new re-evaluations and special reviews, as well as the publication of proposed and final decisions.

Part A – Current re-evaluation and special review work plan (Tables 1–3)

The post-market review program workload remains significant and Health Canada acknowledges the need for transformation. In response, Health Canada is developing new and modern business approaches for pesticide evaluations throughout the regulatory life-cycle that will support a sustainable, more efficient and more predictable program that maintains Canada’s high standards of environmental and human health protection and will improve its timely science-based decisions.

During the period, 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, Health Canada focussed its resources on the completion of the remaining older pesticide active ingredients registered before 1995. Health Canada introduced the risk based prioritization for the re-evaluation program in 2020 (REV2020-01), and ongoing efforts to streamline the re-evaluation processes for lower priority actives resulted in the completion of majority of lower priority actives. The re-evaluation reviews of several higher priority actives have been delayed due to the demands of focusing resources on completing the re-evaluations of older pesticides, and other priorities including responding to ongoing and increasing litigation, as well as notices of objection, and the scientific complexity associated with certain pesticide reviews. The number of re-evaluation initiations currently required as per the 15-year legislative requirement continues to be high and given the current resource capacity considerations, the backlog is growing.

As part of its Transformation Agenda (PMRA Transformation), Health Canada will continue its work in 2023-2024 to modernize business processes to strengthen human health and environmental protection through a continuous oversight and a proportional effort approach that will focus Health Canada efforts on areas that present the highest risk to health and safety of Canadians and the environment. The new processes will be consulted upon publicly this Fall/Winter 2023/24 to seek the input of experts, partners and stakeholders on the development of these policies. During the post-market review program, when necessary, Health Canada will seek independent scientific advice through Science Advisory Committee (Science Advisory Committee) to better inform its evidence-based decisions.

Part A, Table 1. Targets for consultation and final decisions of special reviews

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