Questions and Answers - Transparency under the new Pest Control Products Act

What is the Register?

The new Act requires Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency to establish a Register of Pest Control Products. The Register is a collection of information on pesticides, including information about applications, registrations, re-evaluations and special reviews.

Most of the information contained in the Register will be accessible via either the Public Registry through the PMRA's website or the Reading Room, located at the PMRA's headquarters in Ottawa.

Confidential business information - manufacturing processes, methods for determining the composition of the product, financial or commercial information, and the identity and concentration of formulant ingredients and contaminants that do not pose a health or environmental concern - will not be available for inspection.

What is the Public Registry?

The Public Registry is an electronic database of information available to any interested party through the PMRA's website. It is the first place to go when searching for information on pesticides or the pesticide regulatory system.

The information contained in the Public Registry is mandated in the new Act. It includes non-confidential information such as:

  • information relating to a pesticide;
  • information relating to an application to register or amend the registration of a pesticide;
  • PMRA consultation statements and decision statements;
  • evaluation reports;
  • citations to research used in evaluation;
  • conditions of registration;
  • research authorizations;
  • Own-Use Import certificates;
  • memoranda of understanding among federal government departments relating to pesticides;
  • reports of international harmonization activities; and,
  • regulations, policies, guidelines and codes of practice, both proposed and final.

What is the Reading Room?

The Reading Room is the location where you can inspect confidential test data supporting a decision to register or amend a pesticide. This data was not available under the former Act. Because the data available for inspection is confidential, it may not be copied or otherwise removed from the Reading Room.

A request to inspect test data in the Reading Room is required, along with a signed affidavit or statutory declaration attesting that the data will not be used or made available for others to use to register or amend the registration of a pesticide in Canada or elsewhere. The Reading Room is located at the PMRA's headquarters in Ottawa.

What information is available for inspection in the Reading Room?

Confidential test data provided by registrants is the only information that will be available for inspection in the reading room. Other non-confidential PMRA information on pesticides, the pesticide regulatory system and other initiatives of the PMRA will be available through the Public Registry on the PMRA's website.

When will confidential test data be available for inspection in the Reading Room?

The new Act contains transitional provisions for placing data in the Register and making it available for inspection by the public.

For products already registered when the new Act came into force

Confidential test data supporting pesticide registrations that were already registered on the day the new Act came into effect will not be immediately available in the Reading Room when the new Act comes into force.

For those pesticides, confidential test data will be made available in the Reading Room after a final registration decision requiring public consultation has been made for a major amendment, re-evaluation or special review of the pesticide. Only data relevant to the decision will be made available.

For products where the decision to register or amend the registration of the product is made after the new Act came into force

For products where the decision to register or amend the registration of the product is made after the new Act came into force, confidential test data supporting the decision will be made available in the Reading Room once a certificate of registration is issued and a decision statement is published. Data will not be available for pesticides when the application to amend or register is denied.

For products that are registered as conditional

For products that are registered as conditional (i.e., products that are registered on the condition that further data be provided within a specified time period), confidential test data will be made available in the Reading Room when one of the following has occurred: the conditional registration is converted to a full registration; the conditional registration has been renewed; or if after the data provided has been reviewed, new conditions for registration are identified.

Will the public still be able to make requests for information under the Access to Information Act?

The new Act does not negate Health Canada's responsibility to respond to requests under the Access to Information Act. Access to information requests will be processed under the terms of the Access to Information Act.

Under the transparency provisions of the new Act, however, interested parties will be able to obtain considerably more information than was made available under the former Act. Interested parties are able to inspect confidential test data via the Reading Room; however, confidential test data will continue to be protected from disclosure under the Access to Information Act. We recommend that interested parties search the information contained in the Public Registry and the Reading Room prior to submitting an access to information request.

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