Consultations open on expanded drone regulations
Health Canada is looking for input on proposed rules that would allow pesticides to be applied by drone if they are already registered for aerial application.
To date, only pesticides registered for use with drones can be legally applied that way. There are almost no products registered for drone application.
The proposed regulations would require drone pilots to adhere to all the label directions for aerial application. That includes spray volume and rate, droplet size, treatment interval and buffer zones.
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency said that – when used according to aerial application instructions – drone application isn’t expected to affect the value of the pesticide being applied. The safety implications aren’t expected to be much different either.
However, chemical companies would have the option to opt out of drone application.
Consultations close on March 25.
The PMRA has in the past faced criticism for dragging its feet on drone regulations. Anecdotal evidence suggests some farmers have been quietly flouting the rules and are already applying pesticides by drone.
Federal, provincial leaders headed to India
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt will join Prime Minister Mark Carney in India next week.
Carney plans to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk free trade and drum up investment partnerships. Holt and Moe will join him for meetings before Carney moves on to Australia and Japan.
India’s trade minister said this week they are hoping to launch talks for a free trade agreement with Canada.
Moe has a separate trade mission planned, which will overlap with Carney’s. He told reporters this week that he hopes to address agricultural tariffs such as a 10 per cent tariff on lentils. India may be set to raise that levy to 30 per cent.
Moe also hopes to talk potash and uranium.
Ag research to continue, federal minister says
Canada’s agriculture minister said he hopes the federal government will do as much agricultural research as it did before. This, even as the department is cutting programs and facilities.
Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald defended the cuts before the House of Commons agriculture committee earlier this month. He said it was too expensive to keep all the research facilities open,
and that there was almost 700 million dollars worth of deferred maintenance sitting on the books.
MacDonald said he has challenged his department to do as much research as possible,
and to co-ordinate with stakeholders so the work done is what farmers need. He also has met with three universities to discuss fitting federal research into their facilities.
Deputy minister Lawrence Hanson said the 27 affected scientists will be offered positions elsewhere.
Quebec Conservative MP Jacques Gourde asked if the department had done an impact assessment of the cutbacks.
MacDonald said the focus was on internal assessments to see how research could be consolidated.
Conservative ag critic John Barlow suggested the department could have kept research facilities open
if it had not committed another $300 million to the On Farm Climate Action Fund. Those funds were announced a few months before the research cuts.
