Pest Management Regulatory Agency

The Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is responsible for pesticide regulation in Canada. Created in 1995, this branch of Health Canada consolidates the resources and responsibilities for pest management regulation.

Pesticides are stringently regulated in Canada to ensure they pose minimal risk to human health and the environment. Under authority of the Pest Control Products Act, Health Canada:

• registers pesticides after a stringent, science-based evaluation that ensures any risks are acceptable;
• re-evaluates the pesticides currently on the market on a 15-year cycle to ensure the products meet current scientific standards; and
• promotes sustainable pest management.

Health Canada also promotes and verifies compliance with the Act and enforces situations of non compliance warranting action. Our programs and initiatives look to improve the regulatory process and provide Canadians pest control products and strategies with acceptable risk and value. Health Canada is committed to providing an open, transparent and participatory process for pesticide regulation.

Health Canada works with provincial, territorial and federal departments in Canada to help refine and strengthen pesticide regulation across the country. These partnerships ensure that the diverse needs of the Canadian public are addressed at all levels of government, and that the policies developed by Health Canada meet these needs.

Beyond Canada, Health Canada also works closely with a number of international organizations including: United States Environmental Protection Agency, the North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. These close ties contribute to the development of policies and regulations.

To ensure that interested parties are aware of Health Canada's proposals and decisions related to pesticides and pesticide regulations, publications are released on a regular basis detailing the relevant information, including proposed registration decisions, requests for comments on proposed decisions or policies, or pesticide registration decisions. Everyone is welcome to sign up for the RSS feed to be notified when publications are made available.

Information on pest control and the proper use of pesticides, as well as the Public Registry, which is the repository of non-confidential information on registered and proposed pesticides, can be found in the Protecting Your Health and the Environment section.

Tools and information necessary for pesticide manufacturers and registrants, from new pesticide applications to renewals and incident reporting can also be found in the Registrants and Applicants section.

If you have a question that is not answered on this site, please contact the Pest Management Information Service.

Members of the media are encouraged to visit Health Canada's media room.