Science Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products (SAC-PCP) – Meeting summary

Fifth meeting, Friday, June 23, 2023, 1:00 to 4:00 pm EST
Virtual Meeting via Zoom

List of participants

Frédéric Bissonnette, Acting Executive Director, PMRA
Manon Bombardier, Assistant Deputy Minister, PMRA Transformation
Ruth Rancy, Director General, Policy and Operations Directorate and Executive Secretary to the SAC-PCP

The purpose of this fifth meeting was to present the PMRA's response to the SAC-PCP's advice and recommendations on the third charge question regarding the science literature review strategy under the continuous oversight framework, provide an overview on the targeted review of the Pest Control Products Act – “What We Heard” Report, and present and solicit members’ perspectives on the PMRA’s National Water Monitoring Program for pesticides.

The PMRA’s Assistant Deputy Minister – Transformation
- began by welcoming all participants and observers to the fifth meeting and acknowledged that the land on which she was speaking from was the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people;
- continued by thanking the members for their continued participation in helping to strengthen the scientific work of the PMRA through their involvement on the Committee;
- and provided a high-level update on the Agency’s transformation agenda and spoke to the valuable scientific contribution that this Committee is making in the context of this transformation.

The Committee co-chair gave a brief introductory address, and, in accordance with the Terms of Reference, asked each member in attendance to declare whether there had been any changes in their affiliations and interests since the last meeting.
- All members confirmed that their affiliations and interests had not changed since the last meeting. Committee members were reminded of the ongoing requirement to provide updated declarations and affiliations to the SAC-PCP Secretariat.
The Committee co-chair welcomed the twenty-nine (29) observers to the meeting and clarified that they may not participate in the discussions, either by speaking or by otherwise expressing their support for or disagreement with what is being said, unless specifically invited to do so.
The Committee co-chair provided a brief walkthrough of the meeting agenda and clarified that all portions of the meeting were open to observers.

An overview of the Committee’s advice and recommendations, along with the PMRA’s response, was presented.
The PMRA agreed with the majority of the Committee’s recommendations. Additional explanations and background information were provided to the Committee to further clarify certain concepts.
The PMRA stated that the Committee’s recommendations will be reflected in the literature review strategy as part of the proposed continuous oversight policy.
As a part of this policy, PMRA will clarify how literature reviews are initiated under the continuous oversight framework and ensure transparency in documenting the steps of the literature review process.
The majority of the Committee’s science recommendations will be reflected in two forthcoming policies that PMRA is currently developing: the Science Policy Note (SPN) for Reviews of Published Scientific Literature and the Continuous Oversight (CO) Policy.
In terms of next steps, a summary of the SAC-PCP’s recommendations, along with the PMRA’s response, will be published online. Copies of the Advisory Report will be available upon request.

A high-level overview of what we heard through the Spring 2022 consultations with stakeholders on the Targeted Review of the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA) was presented along with an outline of the proposed amendments to the Pest Control Products Regulations outlined in the Notice of Intent.
Following the presentation, the Committee members asked questions pertaining to the targeted review, stakeholder consultations, and the findings in the report.

The presentation on the PMRA’s National Water Monitoring Program for pesticides covered numerous topics on the subject, which included:

Following the presentation, the Committee members engaged in a discussion and asked a number of questions, some of which could not be addressed by the PMRA due to lack of time. Members were encouraged to send any additional questions, as well as comments and feedback to the Secretariat so they can be addressed administratively following the meeting.
The advice and recommendations from the SAC-PCP members on the development of the water monitoring framework on pesticides, along with the PMRA’s response, will be posted to Health Canada's official SAC-PCP webpage once available.

The PMRA’s Acting Executive Director thanked the Committee members for their participation, expressed the anticipation for the next meeting to occur in-person in October 2023, and adjourned the meeting.