Changes under Bill C-31 would end mandatory reassessments of registered pesticides every 15 years
A coalition of farmers, pesticide exposure victims, and health and environmental organizations has called on Parliament to remove Section 13 of Bill C-31, warning that the proposed amendments would weaken federal pesticide oversight by eliminating mandatory reassessments every 15 years.
The coalition raised its concerns at a press conference in Ottawa as the legislation remained before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. The Senate has also criticized the proposed measure.
Under the Pest Control Products Act, Health Canada must reassess registered pesticides at least once every 15 years using current scientific evidence. Section 13 would replace that requirement with a review of available information, triggering a full reassessment only when risks have “increased significantly.”
The coalition identified three concerns with the proposed framework: the absence of a definition for significantly increased risk, limitations on available scientific information, and insufficient transparency when reviews do not trigger reassessments.
Unlike mandatory reassessments, which allow Health Canada to request new scientific data, the proposed reviews would rely on information already available. The amendments would also require publication of reasons when reviews trigger reassessments but impose no equivalent requirement when they do not.
“The science evolves, but instead of moving forward, this government is moving our pesticide laws backwards — trading mandatory, science-based re-evaluations for a discretionary process with no transparency and no accountability. Parliament must work to keep independent, science-based oversight intact,” said Bronwyn Roe, healthy communities program director at Ecojustice.
The coalition also cited concerns about existing regulatory protections, including provisions introduced through Bill C-30 that allow Cabinet to override scientific findings of unacceptable pesticide risks through an order in council.
It noted that Quebec has recognized Parkinson’s disease as an occupational disease linked to pesticide exposure since 2021.
The organizations further argued that weakening pesticide oversight would conflict with Canada's commitment under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to halve overall risks from pesticides and highly hazardous chemicals by 2030.
“The changes in this bill amount to the biggest rollback of federal pesticide protections in a generation,” said Lisa Gue, national policy manager of David Suzuki Foundation. “Regular reviews are the safeguard that forces the government to revisit pesticides approved years or even decades ago using current science. Scrap that requirement, and outdated risk assessments could be left on the books indefinitely, even as evidence changes and harms become clearer.”
More than 13,000 Canadians have signed a parliamentary petition seeking the removal of Bill C-31's pesticide provisions and the repeal of those adopted under Bill C-30.
Ecojustice and the Association pour la santé publique du Québec appeared before the finance committee on October 8. The coalition also submitted a brief recommending that MPs reject the proposed amendments.
