Amendments buried in Bill C-30 weaken environmental protections

OTTAWA | TRADITIONAL AND UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHINAABE NATION — Public interest organizations denounce amendments to Canada’s Pest Control Products Act included in the government’s omnibus financial bill, as Bill C-30 moves to the final vote in the House of Commons. The bill is being expedited through Parliament, after motions passed earlier this week curtailing debate and amendments.

The changes to Canada’s pesticide law in Bill C-30, along with others introduced in a separate budget implementation bill (C-31), represent the largest overhaul of Canada’s pesticide regulatory system in a generation. This comes as the government is also proposing to weaken key environmental standards under the Species at Risk Act and Impact Assessment Act. A broad coalition of organizations concerned with protecting human health and the environment, advocates for evidence-informed decision-making, and independent scientists have called for the pesticide act amendments to be removed from the omnibus bills, highlighting that there was no consultation or opportunity for study by Parliament’s health and environment committees.

The Senate Committee charged with studying Bill C-30 also noted in its report, “Given the significance and potential repercussions of these changes [to the Pest Control Products Act], the committee believes they should have warranted a separate study rather than being included in an omnibus bill.”

The Pest Control Products Act was passed in 2002. Its primary purpose is to protect human health and the environment. However, the C-30 amendments grant cabinet broad authority to overrule the Health Minister and permit the use of a pesticide found to have unacceptable environmental risks. The amendments will also require Health Canada to consider “economic security” and “food security” when making decisions about pesticide registration, without specifying definitions or processes for doing so.

The groups reiterate their opposition to these measures and call for them to be revoked.

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Lisa Gue, national policy manager, David Suzuki Foundation:

“Perhaps the government realized that these changes to Canada’s pesticide law would not hold up to scrutiny. Giving cabinet the power to authorize the use of pesticides despite unacceptable risks is a dangerous departure from science-based decision-making. It signals that environmental protections are optional, inviting further politicization of pesticide regulation, and a worrying disregard for potential health and environmental consequences.”

Pascal Priori, coordinator of mobilization for the Association pour la santé publique du Québec and coordinator of Victimes des pesticides du Québec:

“As more and more agricultural workers suffer from neurodegenerative diseases or cancers linked to their exposure to pesticides on the job, the Carney administration’s rush to further deregulate pesticides is unjustifiable and erodes confidence in our regulatory system. ”

Pamela Fillion, popular education and advocacy coordinator, Breast Cancer Action Quebec:

“We are deeply concerned about the weakening of pesticide protections in Canada, particularly from an environmental justice perspective. The burden and impacts of toxic exposures are not carried equally. Workers and low-income, racialized and Indigenous communities are most affected. This is an environmental justice issue, something the government has committed to advancing with the National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act (Bill C-226). Additionally, many pesticides are known to contain endocrine disruptors which are scientifically recognized to harm bodies in ways that contribute to breast cancer and reproductive disorders that affect current generations and generations to come. Strengthening, not weakening, regulatory safeguards is essential to reducing these inequities and to preventing avoidable harm to human health and ecosystems.”

Jane McArthur, Preventing Toxic Exposures program director, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE):

“Without any public consultation, we are being forced to accept escalating toxic hazards and real-world harm — including increased miscarriages, rising neurological disease, contaminated ecosystems, and weaker protections for children, workers, and Indigenous peoples. Accepting Bill C-30 means that Canada’s pesticide law will be based on financial considerations rather than health and the environment. This undemocratic process leaves us with harms that we reject. Protecting human and environmental health goes hand in hand with addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and reducing people’s exposure to toxic pollution, including harmful pesticides. Prohibiting unacceptable risks, and even more importantly, preventing actual harm must remain fundamental to pesticide regulation.”

Ian Culbert, executive director, Canadian Public Health Association:

“Canada’s pesticide law exists to protect human health and the environment. These amendments would weaken that foundation by allowing broad economic considerations and political discretion to override independent scientific assessment. Decisions about pesticides must be transparent, evidence-informed and subject to proper public and parliamentary scrutiny — not rushed through an omnibus budget bill. The federal government should withdraw these changes and undertake the full independent review of the Pest Control Products Act that has long been needed.”

Bronwyn Roe, Healthy Communities program director, Ecojustice:

“The government is gutting Canada’s pesticide protections by burying the changes in omnibus budget bills and bypassing democratic debate. Bill C-30 introduces amendments that lets Cabinet override the Health Minister’s science-based decisions to favour commercial interests — even when a pesticide poses unacceptable risks. This has happened with no public hearings and no expert testimony. When science can be vetoed by Cabinet, Canadians should understand exactly whose interests are being served. It isn’t theirs.”

Cassie Barker, senior program manager, Toxics, Environmental Defence:

“Canada’s pesticide law exists to protect our health and our environment. These egregious changes undermine that purpose. We urge the federal government to undo these destructive amendments and raise the bar on safety, because people in Canada deserve nothing less.”

Félix Proulx-Giraldeau, interim executive director, Evidence for Democracy (E4D)

“Decisions about our health and pesticides should be based on strong science and not rushed through Parliament without proper review. These changes sideline evidence and weaken the protections that keep people and the environment safe. Canadians deserve transparent, evidence-informed decision-making they can trust.”

Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive officer, Friends of the Earth Canada

By forcing Bills C-30 and C-31 through Parliament in a single omnibus package, the Government is putting corporate profits ahead of public health and democratic debate. Buried in these bills are sweeping changes that would let the Cabinet override independent, science-based safety assessments. Canadians deserve affordable, safe food, transparent oversight and strong public science – not more power and profits for multinational pesticide and agribusiness companies.

Phil Mount, vice president, policy, National Farmers Union:

“As farmers we are acutely aware of pesticide impacts on our own health and that of our families, neighbours, customers and our agro-ecosystems. Many members have used products initially deemed safe and later banned when further research found they cause unacceptable harm. Bill C-30 disregards these facts, and allows for non-scientific override of public interest-based decisions. Bill C-30 is outside the norms of Canadian governance and is part of an alarming trend toward concentration of power.”

Melanie Langille, president and CEO, NB Lung:

“NB Lung views strong environmental regulation as an important public health tool. These amendments would move Canada in the wrong direction by weakening protections in a system that already does not adequately reflect the needs of people with underlying health vulnerabilities, including asthma, COPD and other lung conditions. Decisions that affect environmental exposures should be transparent, evidence-based, and centred on preventing avoidable harm.”

Meg Sears, chair, Prevent Cancer Now (PCN):

“Ballooning use of diverse pesticides is clearly contributing to rapidly increasing cancers, in younger and younger Canadians. Canada has registered hundreds of pesticides, in thousands of products. Canada’s strong organic agriculture sector demonstrates that these are unnecessary. Substantial changes introduced in time-limited omnibus bills amount to dereliction of due process and science-based management of toxic chemicals to punt assessment for scientific review from Health Canada experts, to the Health Minister. Abandoning science-based pesticide regulation in C-30 and C-31, with no substantive debate, must be abandoned in favour of the overdue review of the Pest Control Products Act.”

Mary Lou McDonald, LL.B., president, SafeFoodMatters Inc.:

“These changes are unlawful — they have no fiscal component and nothing to do with the budget. They are outside the rule of law — it is a criminal offence to use harmful pesticides in Canada, but here untrained politicians can completely sweep that away without legal recourse. And they shut down democracy — no Parliamentary debate, no public consultation on changes directly affecting Canadians and the environment. And thus it was written: Canada has become an oligarchy, pretending to be a democracy.”

Laure Mabileau, responsable de la campagne Sortir du glyphosate, Vigilance OGM:

“This is the biggest rollback on the Pest Control Products Act ever seen: the agrochemical industry is rubbing its hands together as we see their strategy to drastically reduce pesticide regulation being implemented before our very eyes.”

For more information or to request an interview:

Brandon Wei, Communications specialist, David Suzuki Foundation
604-732-4228 x333, bwei@davidsuzuki.org

Venetia Jones, Associate Director of Strategic Communications, Ecojustice
613 903-5898 ext. 714, vjones@ecojustice.ca

Vera Ferret, Director of Communications and Public Relations, Association pour la santé publique du Québec / Victimes des pesticides du Québec
450-626-8879, vferret@aspq.org

Laure Mabileau, coordinator of Communications, Vigilance OGM
438 395-6121, communication@vigilanceogm.org

Supporting organizations:

Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ) / Victimes des pesticides du Québec
Action cancer du sein du Québec / Breast Cancer Action Quebec
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE)
Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN)
Canadian Environmental Law Association
Canadian Public Health Association
Children’s Health Defense Canada
Citizen Science Nova Scotia
Council of Canadians – Edmonton Chapter
Earth Education League
Ecojustice
Environmental Defence
Équiterre
Evidence for Democracy
Friends of Earth Canada
Friends of Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area
GMO Free Canada
National Farmers Union
NB Lung | Poumon NB
NB Neurological Syndrome Patient Support Group
Pesticide Free Edmonton
Prevent Cancer Now
Québec Environmental Law Centre (CQDE)
Safe Food Matters Inc.
Saskatchewan Network for Alternatives to Pesticides
Save Our Old Forests Association
Stop Spraying and Clear Cutting Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia)
Toronto Non-GMO Coalition
Vigilance OGM
York Region Environmental Alliance