Moving pesticide licensing program from paper-based to digital

Description of policy

The Ministry is proposing to transition the pesticides licensing program from a paper-based process to a digital system. Licences would be applied for online, and issued online, if the prescribed requirements are met. Certain information about the licence holders would be available to the public.

Online service delivery

Amendments are being proposed to the Pesticides Act to enable online application and issuance of pesticide licences. Prescribed requirements would still need to be met.

Currently, the ministry processes over 5,200 paper-based applications each year for new or renewed pesticide licences. Licensing requirements ensure pesticides are applied in a manner that protects human health and the environment. The proposed amendments to the Pesticides Act also include amendments to remove obsolete provisions and update regulatory drafting language.

Information available to the public

Amendments are also being proposed to the Environmental Protection Act to allow the ministry to make information about pesticide licences and other ministry instruments publicly available.

Once enacted, these legislative changes will allow regulations to be made to increase transparency and allow information about pesticide licences and other ministry instruments to be publicly available (e.g. making certain information about pesticide licences available for public viewing on Access Environment).

The amendments proposed to the Pesticides Act to enable online application and issuance of licences and to the Environmental Protection Act to make information available to the public are set out in Schedule 5 of the Bill to Cut Unnecessary Red Tape, 2017, introduced September 14, 2017. Below is a summary of the proposed amendments.

Proposed changes to the Environmental Protection Act

Amendments to the Act would update the definitions of Minister and Ministry to reflect the name change to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

The Act would be amended to allow the Minister to publish prescribed information about instruments created under any act administered by the Minister for the purpose of making the information available to the public. Subsection 19 (12) is currently limited to information about instruments created under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Water Resources Act. The Ministry anticipates making information about pesticides licences available to the public.

Proposed changes to the Pesticides Act

Amendments to the Act would update the definitions of Minister and Ministry and add a definition of public servant which is used in amendments to update the drafting language, appointing Directors and provincial officers for the purposes of the Act. In addition, two obsolete provisions, subsection 5 (3) and (4), would be repealed.

The Act would be amended to clarify that extermination licences are issued to individuals while permits may be issued to individuals, corporations, municipalities, or other types of persons.

The amendments would allow automatic online issuance and renewal of pesticide licences if prescribed requirements are met and the prescribed fees are paid, unless a pesticide licence previously issued to the applicant has been suspended or revoked within the preceding 5 years or a notice of a proposal to suspend or revoke the licence has been recently issued. Issuing pesticide licences is administrative in nature and in the absence of compliance issues does not require screening or review. If the Director has suspended or revoked a prior licence, or has recently proposed to do so, the Director would have discretion to refuse to issue a new licence or renew an existing licence. The deemed continuation of a licence pending renewal provision of the Act would be amended to clarify that a licence is deemed to continue from the date of the application until the licence is renewed.

The Director’s discretion to refuse to issue a permit would be retained and the grounds for cancelling or refusing a permit would be clarified to align with the grounds for suspending or revoking a licence. In addition, the Act would be amended to clarify the permit appeal process.

Three provisions in the Act would be amended to reflect the earlier repeal of the administrative penalty provisions under s. 10.1 of the Legislation Act, 2006.

The regulation-making authority of the Lieutenant Governor in Council would be amended to update drafting language, to add an authority to make regulations governing the issue of licences and permits, and for the renewal of licences, and to make regulations to provide for transitional matters in relation to online applications for licences. This would provide authority to deal with transition matters that might arise when the ministry transitions from a paper process to an online process.

The authority to incorporate documents into a regulation by reference would be amended. Originally, the documents that could be referenced were any code, formula, standard, protocol or procedure. This would be broadened with this amendment to include any document.

The ministry’s authority to establish fees would be updated to align with more recent ministry fees provisions in order for the fees to be established by a more transparent Minister’s regulation rather than a Minister’s requirement.

Purpose of policy

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change is proposing to amend the Pesticides Act and Environmental Protection Act to:

1. Allow electronic service delivery and online applications and issuance of pesticide licences. Prescribed requirements would still need to be met; and
2. Allow the ministry to make certain information about pesticide licences and other ministry instruments publicly available.

The amendments to the legislation would come into force when the ministry’s online pesticide licence IT system is developed.

Subsequent proposals for amendments to regulations made under the Pesticide Act will provide more details of the new online process for pesticide licences. It is anticipated that such proposals will be posted for public consultation on the Environmental Registry and Regulatory Registry in early 2018.

Other information

More information on pesticide licences.

Public consultation

This proposal was posted for a 30 day public review and comment period starting September 20, 2017. Comments were to be received by October 20, 2017.

All comments received during the comment period are being considered as part of the decision-making process by the Ministry.

Please Note: All comments and submissions received have become part of the public record.