Pesticides compliance and enforcement: Overview

Health Canada's Pesticide Compliance Program (PCP) is responsible for promoting, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Pest Control Products Act (act) and its regulations. The legislation aims to protect human health and safety and the environment by regulating the use of "pest control products", also known as pesticides.

PCP operates under the Regulatory Operations and Enforcement Branch, Health Canada's dedicated compliance and enforcement branch. It coordinates and delivers its activities nationally with inspectors across Canada.

PCP strives to prevent unauthorized pesticides from being available on the Canadian market. It also verifies that regulated parties operate according to the act. These include:

• importers
• exporters
• manufacturers
• online and offline distributors and retailers
• users of pesticide whose purposes are:
  • industrial
  • domestic
  • agricultural
  • commercial
• registrants (typically companies that own the pesticide registrations)

PCP also verifies that these parties meet Health Canada's registration conditions and approved label instructions. It delivers on its mandate in accordance with its compliance and enforcement policy for pesticides, and works alongside:

• international partners
• regulatory organizations
• federal, provincial and territorial partners

The act regulates pesticides such as:

• herbicides
• fungicides
• insecticides
• rodenticides
• biopesticides
• material and wood preservatives
• sanitizers, including pool and spa sanitizers
• devices, including devices emitting UV or ozone
• insect repellents against fleas, ticks and mosquitoes

PCP works closely with Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency. This branch is responsible for evaluating and registering pesticides under the authority of the act. This process assesses the value of the pesticides and if the health and environmental risks are acceptable under the approved conditions of use.

Related links

Legislation and policy

• Pest Control Products Act
• Pest Control Products Regulations
• Pest Control Products Sales Information Reporting Regulations
• Pest Control Products Incident Reporting Regulations
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Regulations
• Compliance and enforcement policy for pesticides
• Compliance and enforcement policy framework

Pest Management Regulatory Agency

• Pest Management Regulatory Agency
• Pest Management Information Service
• Pesticides and pest management: Frequently asked questions