Agri-food and aquaculture sector: Targeted regulatory review

Published: February 2021
Last update: February 2021

Since June 2019, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Health Canada, and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) have made great strides in advancing work on the Agri-food and Aquaculture Roadmap's initiatives. These updates on the roadmap initiatives provide a brief overview of some of the highlights on implementation progress.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, these departments and agencies have had to redirect resources to focus on emergency responses and new emerging priorities. This has caused some initiatives to experience delays in meeting original target dates. Nevertheless, the next steps on these particular initiatives are continuously revised in light of these current circumstances in order to continue delivering on roadmap commitments and avoid any unnecessary delays.

Revised timelines for all regulatory initiatives can be found in "Forward regulatory plans".

Latest updates

Clear, agile, responsive regulations

CFIA updated the Fertilizers Regulations to provide flexibility to the fertilizers industry through a risk-based approach, support innovation, and create a more level playing field for importers and domestic manufacturers
Health Canada has completed amendments to the Pest Control Products Incident Reporting Regulations to further clarify the pesticide incident reporting requirements and enhance the department's ability to identify trends and analyze incident reports, while reducing regulatory and administrative burden
- These amendments will come into force January 1, 2022
- Additional time is needed to allow for necessary changes to reporting forms and internal databases
- Also, updated guidance documents for companion animals were published on Health Canada's web page on December 6, 2019
CFIA proposed regulatory amendments to advance a modern regulatory framework related to hatcheries in Canada Gazette, Part I in support of keeping pace with scientific and technological advances and facilitate international trade
CFIA is working towards modernizing its feeds regulatory framework and developing proposed regulatory amendments to the Feeds Regulations for pre-publication in Canada Gazette, Part I in order to reduce overlap and redundancy and increase responsiveness to industry changes
CFIA has made progress on updating its food regulatory framework
- The standard of identity for vodka was modernized to support federal actions to enhance competitiveness and facilitate trade
- The proposed amendments to support food labelling modernization (presently called "food product innovation") were pre-published in Canada Gazette, Part I
- Work is underway to create a more agile approach to food compositional standards within the Food and Drug Regulations by developing a regulatory proposal to use incorporation by reference
CFIA established a seed regulatory modernization working group to engage a balanced group of seed sector stakeholders in the co-development of regulatory options
- During winter 2021, CFIA will be conducting a needs assessment to determine the benefits of the current system, opportunities for change, and issues that need to be addressed
- These activities will help to ensure that the seed regulatory framework is flexible and meets current and future needs for crop production in Canada
To address stakeholder comments that "food regulations are out of date, limiting flexibility and industry's ability to innovate", Health Canada has proposed taking incremental steps to re-design its food regulations
- Amendments to 3 marketing authorizations for food additives were published in Canada Gazette, Part II in June 2019 and have come into force
- In 2019 and early 2020, Health Canada, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, worked on the development of proposed options to manage the oversight of human milk fortifiers
  - In fall 2020, further consultation on the proposed regulations were held
  - Health Canada is targeting publication of the final regulations in Canada Gazette, Part II, in winter 2021
- On December 3, 2020, Health Canada and the CFIA issued a joint interim policy statement to permit the use of an additional protein quality method, effective immediately
- Health Canada is working to amend the Food and Drug Regulations to allow for rapid updates to microbiological criteria and the list of scientific methodologies used to determine food safety
  - Public and industry stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed amendments during pre-publication in Canada Gazette, Part I, which is targeting fall 2021
- Health Canada is developing regulations for supplemented foods
  - Pre-consultations were held with key industry and health stakeholders in fall 2020 in advance of the pre-publication of the proposed amendments in Canada Gazette, Part I, which is targeting spring 2021
- Health Canada is further committed to consulting with our partners and stakeholders to develop a more comprehensive picture of the changing food landscape, which will help identify the next suite of regulatory modernization priorities
To address stakeholder concerns that "the regulatory framework for veterinary drugs creates unnecessary barriers, is not internationally harmonized and limits therapeutic options in Canada", Health Canada is developing an adaptive, licensing scheme to effectively regulate veterinary drugs throughout their lifecycles
- These measures will be advanced as part of the broader "agile licensing for drugs" regulatory proposal introduced under the Health and Biosciences Sector Roadmap
- Public and industry stakeholders will be consulted on the proposed regulatory changes in advance of pre-publication in Canada Gazette, Part I, which is targeting spring 2022
Health Canada is working to amend the Pest Control Products Regulations to permit use of electronic labels and internationally aligned label formats, as well as to improve the readability of labels
- Canadians will have the opportunity to provide comments at a pre-consultation expected in 2021, as well as during the pre-publication of the proposed amendments in Canada Gazette, Part l, which is targeting fall 2021
- Health Canada continues to advance work on potential statutory amendments to the Pest Control Products Act to broaden the Minister of Health's ability to make label changes without an application in certain circumstances
Health Canada has made progress on potential amendments to the Pest Control Products Regulations to update current authorizations for pest control products for which registration is not required
- Public and industry stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed regulatory amendments during the Canada Gazette, Part l, which is targeting fall 2021
- Health Canada continues to advance work on potential statutory amendments to the Pest Control Products Actto make it easier to make risk-based authorizations and to exercise appropriate post-market oversight for products with lower well-characterized risks
Health Canada completed amendments to the Pest Control Products Act as part of the Budget Implementation Act, 2019
- These amendments reduce duplicative or unnecessary work related to the post-market review process and have come into force
- In 2020, Health Canada also undertook broad consultations on the Integrated Approach to the pesticide review program
  - A "What was heard" report on those consultations will be available in early 2021
  - Health Canada continues to explore implementation details for the Integrated Approach to the pesticide review program, building on internal approaches initiated in fall 2020
  - Timelines for full implementation are under development
AAFC and the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) have held preliminary discussions with stakeholders and conducted analysis to identify possible needs for amendments to legislation
- In March 2020, AAFC prepared a discussion document for consultations, and was planning on launching consultations so that all interested stakeholders would have the opportunity to comment on the Canada Grain Act and CGC modernization
- The launch of this consultation process has been delayed to early 2021
- The consultation process is the first step toward fulfilling this roadmap commitment
DFO is developing the proposed General Aquaculture Regulations (GAR) in phases
- The initial phases are underway to improve aquaculture-related content in existing Fisheries Act regulations, starting with exempting cultivated shellfish from the Atlantic Fishery Regulations and the Maritime Provinces Fishery Regulations as soon as early 2021
- The phased approach will allow DFO to reduce red tape and administrative burden as well as address immediate modernization priorities in the short term while work continues on developing the proposed federal aquaculture act and GAR
PHAC and CFIA have advanced work to address misalignment and duplication between Canada's regulatory regimes for human and animal pathogen oversight
- Key results to date include: successfully implementing a collaborative human and animal pathogen program; agreeing on the definition alignment in the next version of the jointly-published Canadian Biosafety Standard (v3) (publication planned for 2021); and CFIA on-boarding PHAC's case management system for containment laboratory licences

Competitiveness in domestic and international markets

CFIA conducted internal consultations on an engagement framework to support developing a competitiveness and innovation policy in February 2020
- An external consultation is planned for early 2021 to solicit stakeholder input on the main elements of interest to consider in future policy development efforts
Supported by funding announced in the 2018 Fall Economic Statement, AAFC, CFIA, and Health Canada have continued to advance Canada's influence and participation in international standards setting bodies
- World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH; founded as Office International des Épizooties (OIE))
  - Canada is working closely with the WOAH to ensure a strategic regional approach to preventing the entry and responding to the threat of African swine fever (ASF)
  - Canada leads an expert group on ASF for the region, and supports the development of international guidance on the use of compartmentalization for ASF to ensure business continuity should ASF enter Canada
- International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC)
  - Canada plays a leadership role in many of the IPPC's initiatives, including the development of a framework draft commodity-based standards for phytosanitary measures, guidance on e-Commerce to increase awareness on associated phytosanitary risks, and guidance for reducing phytosantiary risks associated with the movement of sea containers
  - In addition, Canada chairs the Sea Containers Task Force and is also involved in the North American Sea Containers Initiative
  - These efforts support minimizing impediments to trade and create predictable and expanded market access
- Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex)
  - Canada continues to engage in advancing Codex initiatives on developing standards, guidelines, and recommendations that protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade
  - This includes improving the procedures and tools to maximize the effectiveness and timeliness of Canada's engagement in Codex Committees and electronic working groups
  - Of particular note, Canada supported technical training on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues approach on pesticide residue analysis, which recommends pesticide maximum residue limits to Codex
  - Over the next year, Canada will continue to participate in the work at Codex, including Committees focusing on antimicrobial resistance and pesticide residues
In response to comments that "Canadian livestock producers do not have access to the same veterinary drugs as their counterparts in other countries", Health Canada is working to create an accelerated pathway to allow certain submissions for veterinary drugs intended for unmet medical needs (minor uses and minor species) to be approved in Canada
- These measures will be advanced as part of the broader "agile licensing for drugs" regulatory proposal introduced under the Health and Biosciences Sector Roadmap
- Public and industry stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide comments through pre-publication in Canada Gazette, Part I, which is targeting spring 2022
Stakeholders have identified that "the pre-market assessment for certain food products can be lengthy"
- To address this, Health Canada is exploring further collaboration with like-minded jurisdictions to use foreign reviews in pre-market assessments of certain food products
- Health Canada is finalizing its feasibility study on conducting joint pre-market safety assessments or sharing assessments
- Health Canada will work to implement the recommendations from the study and intends to have processes in place by the end of the 2021 to 2022 fiscal year
CFIA developed a domestic comparability assessment tool (DCAT) for provincial-territorial governments to assess their food safety systems against the federal system
- This was completed in support of identifying points of comparability and areas that may require modification
- Currently, Saskatchewan has assessed their provincial meat inspection system using the DCAT
- Alberta and Manitoba are also undertaking the process
In 2019 to 2020, AAFC conducted engagement activities with industry members and CFIA led a broader consultation with all Canadians to arrive at a general consensus on a proposed new policy for the "Product of Canada" claim
- While there are different policy considerations, work is expected to be completed soon
- Increasing the number of products that can be labelled as "Made in Canada" or "Product of Canada" will help Canadians make informed choices, increase demand, and support economic recovery
Following extensive consultations with the sector, AAFC presented an economic analysis on a value creation model for wheat and other cereal crops to stakeholders
- AAFC also signalled that consultations would be put on hold until greater industry consensus could be reached on a way forward
- Since this announcement, producer groups and seed industry members have been collaboratively developing guiding principles to advance discussions
- AAFC will continue to follow sector-led discussions and consider a path forward in consultation with industry

Risk-based, efficient, predictable regulatory programs

In 2019, an industry-government working group was formed and developed and presented options to clarify how plant products of biotechnology are regulated
- Expert engagement sessions for further technical and scientific analysis were held in June 2020 jointly hosted by Health Canada, CFIA and AAFC
- A virtual expert panel was also held in October 2020
- Health Canada and CFIA's plant programs have used this input to develop proposals for new guidance
- Public engagement on the draft guidance is anticipated for early 2021
- AAFC, CFIA, and Health Canada will continue to work together to advance this initiative, particularly in improving the draft guidance and implementing a well-defined process for consulting with regulatory authorities on whether a product is novel
CFIA has integrated multiple services into the Digital Service Delivery Platform (DSDP), including plant and animal import permits, export certificates for live animals to the United States of America (USA), dairy products for over 20 countries and the certificate of free sale (for the non-federally registered sector, honey, maple, and processed product commodities), inspection activities for non-meat food programs, and applications for fertilizers and supplements registrations
- These advancements have made it easier and faster to consolidate data and have improved user experience with submitting applications for permissions and certificates for commodities currently integrated into DSDP as well as accessing and printing inspection reports related to non-meat food programs directly from the MyCFIA dashboard
- Work is underway to transition more CFIA services into MyCFIA to support full case management in the future
CFIA developed and piloted a tool designed to assess voluntary third-party oversight programs
- It will be posted publicly for third-party oversight programs to conduct self-assessments against federal requirements, which CFIA would review
- This work will be used to help inform CFIA's risk-based inspection approach by recognizing third-party oversight programs' contribution to food safety
To support consistent inspections, CFIA developed a common inspection architecture and updated the Standard Inspection Process (SIP) guidance documents, which will provide more predictable outcomes for regulated parties
- In 2019, implementation occurred for non-meat food inspections, while alignment within the meat program and the plant and animal business lines is currently being rolled out in a phased approach
CFIA has advanced work to reduce duplication of oversight between federal, provincial, and territorial (FPT) requirements
- Notably, CFIA has signed 6 Umbrella Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and has engaged with the remaining provinces and territories to support information sharing, emergency management, and regulatory and scientific collaboration
- CFIA continues to work with Quebec on a single point of contact for food inspection work and use of tailored inspection tools
- As a member of the FPT Food Safety Committee, CFIA is helping to develop a Pan-Canadian Comprehensive Approach for food surveillance activities
In response to comments that multiple, sequential food labelling changes made independently by Health Canada and CFIA create unnecessary costs and burden on industry, Health Canada and CFIA, with support from AAFC, are in the process of developing a strategy to coordinate timelines for future food labelling changes
- Health Canada and CFIA are planning to hold consultations with stakeholders in winter 2021
To improve the clarity around data protections requirement concerning pesticides, Health Canada published an updated "ministerial agreement" in April 2019, to help innovators and "generic" producers reach compensation agreements for pre-market reviews
- Health Canada is also working to clarify the data protection provisions applicable during post-market reviews through proposed amendments to the Pest Control Products Regulations
- Public and industry stakeholders will have the opportunity to comment on the proposed regulatory amendments during the Canada Gazette, Part I, which is targeting spring 2021

Novel regulatory approaches

AAFC's Sector Specific Government-Stakeholder Collaboration on Regulations initiative was launched in March 2020 and is comprised of 2 components: an Industry-Government Agile Regulations Table (Agile Regulations Table) and an internal Regulatory Hub
- This innovative regulatory approach is meant to be a platform for sector-wide, shared solution approaches to help government and industry work together to address horizontal and systemic regulatory issues facing the agriculture and agri-food sector
- It will also provide a focal point for AAFC's contribution to broader government regulatory reform efforts and strengthen capacity for regulatory policy efforts
- The Agile Regulations Table's membership includes diverse stakeholder perspectives which span the full spectrum of the sector as well as government officials from both regulatory and economic departments and agencies
- In December 2020, the Agile Regulations Table held 2 initial meetings which focused on defining a vision and reviewing potential challenges and opportunities which will serve as a basis for short, medium and longer term efforts to improve the agriculture and agri-food regulatory system
CFIA completed the examination of the use of blockchain in the existing regulations pertaining to livestock traceability and provided industry and government project participants with a report on lessons learned
- In the coming year, CFIA will work with the Standards Council of Canada to look at supply chains and the use of data governance and distributed ledger technology standards to improve consumer safety and empowerment
- In addition, CFIA will continue to collaborate with a group of federal partners experimenting in this space
In 2018 to 2019, CFIA and an industry 'champion' completed a 3-month pilot study to explore a shared risk relationship in which the champion voluntarily shared a subset of additional establishment data beyond the standard requirements with CFIA for risk analysis and assessment
- CFIA used this pilot study to assess how additional industry data could improve CFIA's understanding of risk and subsequently contribute to CFIA's program design for risk mitigation
- In 2020 to 2021, CFIA is currently exploring additional work with industry and stakeholders on technology to understand and enhance inspection capabilities prioritized against COVID-19 requirements

Regulatory reviews in other sectors

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Date modified:: 2021-02-12

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