The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says updated plant protection regulations will allow it to be more agile.
It also repealed some outdated or unnecessary rules.
The changes, published in the Canada Gazette, include wording changes around restrictions or prohibitions on movements of plants or pests in Canada. These changes allow the CFIA to quickly update domestic controls rather than requiring a regulatory amendment according an impact analysis statement.
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Under the old wording, “stakeholders could face unnecessary burden and costs, such as obtaining a movement certificate, to meet control measures that are no longer supported by science,” the Canada Gazette said.
The CFIA also removed regulations considered no longer applicable. These included time-limited regulations that set compensation for birds depopulated during a 2004 avian influenza outbreak in British Columbia, trees removed in 2019 to control the Asian long-horned beetle, and others.
The report also targets two regulations and one ministerial order related to the golden nematode pest in Central Saanich, British Columbia. According to a December 3 news release, these are no longer required to mitigate risk. Instead, the agency is narrowing restrictions on only the small area still affected.
Thes changes are the latest in a campaign to reduce red tape across Canada’s regulations and bureaucracy — called for by Prime Minister Mark Carney in July.
