Developing a Harmonized Pesticide Classification System

1. Developing a Harmonized Pesticide Classification System Work undertaken by the Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial Committee on Pest Management and Pesticides August, 2003

2. Presentation Overview • Pesticide Management • Provincial Classification of Pesticides • Benefits of a Harmonized System • Proposed Harmonized Classification System • Improved Regulatory Requirements • Stakeholder Input • Public Consultation Process • Key Outstanding Issues • Next Steps: Towards Implementation of a Harmonized Pesticide Classification System

3. Pesticide Management Federal • Pesticide products are registered by the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), under Health Canada • Once registered, pesticides are assigned a classification designation according to risk Provincial • Provincial governments use classification as a basis for regulations to control the sale and use of pesticides, and to set training and licensing requirements

4. Provincial Classification of Pesticides • In addition to federal classification, four provinces (QC, ON, AB, BC) assign a provincial classification to pesticides • Each provincial classification system is unique • Adoption of a harmonized system would allow provinces to meet provincial regulatory objectives and eliminate the need for unique provincial classification systems

5. Benefits of a Harmonized System • Developing classification criteria is a difficult task; combining efforts across jurisdictions results in a comprehensive, more defensible set of criteria • The introduction of additional classification categories allows regulatory controls to be better matched to the degree of product risk • Regulatory controls associated with classification designations will be harmonized to a greater degree between provinces

6. Benefits of a Harmonized System (cont.) • The improved harmonized system will assist efforts to focus enforcement activities on the sale and use of higher risk products that pose greater concerns • Domestic products will be clearly identified for consumers as “higher risk” or “lower risk”

7. Proposed Harmonized Classification System • Existing “DOMESTIC” and “COMMERCIAL” classes will each be replaced with two new classes to better distinguish between lower and higher risk products • New Restricted category will contain only the highest risk products and require explicit provincial authorization for use Classification Categories Existing Federal System Proposed Harmonized System Lower Risk Domestic DOMESTIC Higher Risk Domestic Lower Risk Commercial COMMERCIAL Higher Risk Commercial RESTRICTED • Restricted • highest risk products only, • provincial authorization required

8. Proposed Harmonized Classification System

9. Improved Regulatory Requirements • Vendors of Higher Risk Domestic class products will require a minimum level of training, and some degree of vendor/consumer interaction at point of sale will be required • All users of Higher Risk Commercial products will require training • Currently, in some provinces private growers using pesticides undergo training on a voluntary basis only • Restricted products will require provincial authorization for use (trained users only)

10. Stakeholder Input • The early development of the draft proposal for a harmonized pesticide classification system included participation and input from the Canadian pesticide manufacturing industry as well as the Canadian Federation of Agriculture • Federal/Provincial/Territorial Committee members have had ongoing opportunities to comment on the development of the harmonized system • More recently, a broader stakeholder group had opportunity to comment on aspects of the proposed approach to classifying domestic pesticides, through the Healthy Lawns Strategy • There was further opportunity for broad stakeholder consultation on the proposal at federal and provincial levels, during the public consultation process

11. Public Consultation Process • Held between November, 2002 and February 2003 • 27 comments received • Municipalities, organizations (industry, applicator, consumer groups), federal and provincial departments • Mostly, strong support for proposal • Industry (pesticide manufacturers) concerned how the Domestic class split will be undertaken • Classification Implementation Working Group using comments to strengthen the proposal

12. Key Outstanding Issues Issue: Requirements for Sale of Higher Risk Domestic Products • What degreeof interaction between vendors and consumers will be required? • What will the minimum training requirements for vendors be? Issue: New Commercial Classification • When will the use of the new commercial classes be implemented? • How will training requirements for Higher Risk Commercial products be implemented?

13. Next Steps: Towards Implementation of a Harmonized Pesticide Classification System • Development of detailed implementation plans (federal and provincial) • Implementation of new national Domestic classification categories in the short term (next year) • Amendment of provincial regulation/programs to align with new classification system • Implementation of remaining classification categories over the longer term ( 2-3 years)