Canada expands cabinet power to authorize banned pesticides in food-security cases
Canada’s Bill C-30 gives cabinet new authority to temporarily allow pesticides that Health Canada has deemed unsafe if ministers argue the move is needed for economic or food-security reasons.
Canada has made a major change to pesticide regulation through Bill C-30, which passed both chambers of Parliament before the summer break. CBC reported that the omnibus bill includes amendments to the Pest Control Products Act that allow Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet to authorize the use of pesticides even when Health Canada has previously determined that those products are unsafe. The stated trigger for such action is economic security or national food security.
The new law also lets cabinet authorize a pesticide in cases of what it calls a seriously detrimental infestation, even if the health minister has already rejected an approval request. That authorization can remain in force for as long as six years. The legislation does not define what counts as an economic or food-security emergency, and that lack of clarity became one of the central objections raised by doctors, senators and environmental advocates.
Dr. Trevor Hancock of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment said the change amounts to politicians overruling science. Senator Rosa Galvez described it as a fundamental shift because a group of ministers can now set aside Health Canada safety decisions. She also said scientists, public-health specialists and environmental experts were not given the chance to testify, and that neither health nor environment committees conducted a full review of the reform before it became law.
The government argues the powers will be used sparingly. House leader Steven MacKinnon said cabinet would not rely on the measures if health hazards were attached to a product. Health Minister Marjorie Michel’s spokesperson, Alexandre Bergeron, told CBC that any authorizations would be transparent, temporary and reserved for exceptional situations. He pointed to the recent temporary strychnine authorization in Alberta and Saskatchewan for ground squirrel infestations as an example of emergency action already possible under the current framework.
CropLife Canada welcomed the new law, saying farmers need crop-protection tools and innovation to stay productive, respond to climate and pest pressures and remain globally competitive. The political fight therefore centers on a hard trade-off: whether Ottawa should preserve the primacy of scientific risk assessment, or whether it should give ministers broader powers to defend harvests, supply chains and domestic food resilience when agricultural pressure intensifies.