PMRA under-resourced for current pesticide evaluation workload.Ottawa—The federal government should fulfill its promise to streamline the regulatory system for agriculture and food processing with action before the October election, says the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.Numerous reports during the last few years on the need for regulatory reform have drawn promises of action, the Chamber said in a report sponsored by CropLife, Dairy Processors of Canada, Food & Consumer Products of Canada, Food Processors of Canada, Nutrien and the Royal Bank of Canada.However, the obstacles posed by regulatory regimes are not new, nor are pledges to fix them, the Chamber said. “With a federal election around the corner, Canada's agrifood sector is anxiously waiting to see if these commitments to regulatory competitiveness will turn into action.“In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, the success of Canadian farmers and food manufacturers is closely linked to the performance of the regulatory systems that govern their activities.”The Chamber made a detailed case for federal, provincial and municipal regulatory reform last May in its report Death by 130,000 Cuts. Its latest report traces the repeated calls for reform and the sector's economic growth potential to the Barton Report of 2016 through the Agrifood Strategy Table report last year.“Canada has one of the safest, most closely regulated agriculture and agrifood regimes in the world,” it said. “However, a build-up in the complexity and inconsistency of regulatory processes over time has created an environment that can inhibit the sector's competitiveness and ability to take advantage of new global opportunities.”That situation is “amplified by regulatory misalignment between federal departments and agencies, between provinces within Canada and between Canada and the U.S.”New federal initiatives “will further affect how it makes, labels and sells its products to Canadians and global customers,” the report said. Among those hindrances are Health Canada's Healthy Eating Strategy, which includes initiatives such as front-of-package labelling (FOPL), changes to the Canada Food Guide and restrictions on marketing to children.“If the government is serious about realizing the Economic Strategy Table's vision for the sector, it should halt Health Canada's current approach to FOPL labelling and leverage industry expertise to pursue evidence-based nutritional policies that will improve Canadians' health outcomes.In addition to Health Canada, the regulatory changes at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment Canada's carbon pricing policies and movement toward zero plastic waste will impose “new costs on the sector and decrease its competitiveness, the report said.It's not just a cost problem, the report said. “Collectively, concurrent regulatory changes are straining the resources of regulators and industry, alike, to fully understand the cumulative implications of these changes.”The situation also highlights “a more fundamental problem with Canada's regulatory environment. Many departments and agencies, which have an immense influence on the economic success of the sector, are not required to consider the cumulative impacts of these measures or promote economic growth along with their designated health, safety and environmental mandates.“This results in disproportionate regulatory decisions that are not considering business competitiveness impacts.”The Pest Management Regulatory Agency is not properly resourced to handle its current workload of pesticide evaluation and re-evaluations, the report said. As a result it is following in overly-conservative approaches to risk assessment compared to the U.S.“This is putting Canadian farmers at a competitive disadvantage by limiting their access to crop protection products. Unless this situation is urgently addressed, continued innovation and entire value chains and cropping systems may be put at risk, forfeiting much of the economic potential of the sector and, with it, agriculture's broader societal contributions to climate change and biodiversity.”PMRA has more than 100 pesticide re-evaluations underway, with hundreds more expected during the next decade, the report said. “To make matters worse, amending regulations in Canada—even those regulators agree are redundant—is usually a long, technical process that draws considerable resources. Canada needs its regulatory system to move at the speed of commerce.“Canada is facing intense competition from other jurisdictions, many of which have more agile regulatory environments. If we hope to achieve our vision and growth targets, it is imperative to have in place a regulatory system that works in tandem with industrial growth strategies and supports the sector's competitiveness.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.