A tractor-mounted boom sprayer applies pesticides to a crop field. Photo by Josephine-v-G/Wikimedia Commons.

Just before the Liberal government headed home for the summer, they passed a sweeping law that will undermine how people and the environment are protected from pesticides. On June 18, Bill C-30 passed in both the House of Commons and the Senate. If you read the fine print in this omnibus bill, you’ll find amendments that give Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet the authority to authorize the use of any pesticide if they unilaterally decide it is in the interest of “economic security” or “national food security.” This could include pesticides that Health Canada previously banned because scientific evidence has shown they pose serious harms.

In the hustle to wrap up Parliament, Carney’s government stifled debate on Bill C-30. MPs were given less than 72 hours to table amendments, and there were no public hearings or testimony from researchers or affected communities. Consequently, the federal government didn’t take the time to consider the impacts of these legislative changes on wildlife, farmers, or the health of agricultural workers and rural communities. Twenty-one scientists with research expertise on pesticides and the environment wrote an open letter to the federal government urging it to nix the changes, but their concerns were disregarded. Clearly, this law was not designed to serve the interests of everyday people in Canada who care about their health, worker safety, and the environment.

Who asked for this regulatory overhaul? So far, we don’t know.

What we do know is that earlier this spring, CropLife Canada, the major trade association representing the pesticide industry, applauded Minister of Health Marjorie Michel for “her efforts to drive bold action on regulatory modernization in Canada’s pesticide regulatory system.” Michel proudly noted that she was the first health minister to speak at an event hosted by CropLife, which happened to fall on the same day as Bill C-30 was introduced. Michel and her political advisor have also met with CropLife numerous times over the past year. The organization praised the new law, saying that it “urges the government to move quickly toward the implementation of the updated mandate.” This cozier relationship between industry and government appears more akin to overt, American-style agribusiness lobbying.

Minister Michel is supposed to receive guidance on changes to pesticide protections from the Pesticide Management Advisory Council, a multi-stakeholder body of Health Canada. However, she has not called any meetings with the council, raising serious questions about why the government has sidelined its own advisory process while advancing such sweeping changes.

Canada’s pesticide regulatory framework was already flawed before Bill C-30

Even before the regulatory overhaul, Canada’s pesticide protections were criticized for failing to protect human health. In 2023, Dr. Bruce Lanphear, the co-chair of Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products, quit his role over frustrations about the limited role of scientists and lack of transparency in how decisions were made. He asserted that we “can no longer continue to rely on an obsolete regulatory system that protects the pesticide industry more than it protects Canadians.”

Conclusively proving a cause-and-effect relationship between pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes—especially cancer, autism spectrum disorder, infertility, and neurological disease—can be challenging. Causes........

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