The following brief was submitted to the House of Commons Finance Committee on June 4, 2026 for their study of Bill C-30, the Spring Economic Update Act, following Second Reading of the bill in Parliament. The brief focusses on alarming amendments to the CFIA Act that would allow Cabinet to override any law or regulation the CFIA is responsible for implementing or enforcing, other than the Plant Breeders Rights Act. The NFU recommends that this part of the Bill be removed, along with a similar set of amendments that would allow Cabinet to overturn Health Canada bans on pesticides found to be too dangerous for the Canadian environment.
Bill C-30, Part 3, Division 7 proposes substantive amendments to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act that are unprecedented in scope, were not communicated in the Spring Economic Statement, and are contrary to Canada’s democratic governance norms.
Bill C-30 Section 50 would amend the CFIA Act by adding a new Section 31.1 that enables Cabinet to suspend parts of any law or regulation administered by the CFIA other than the Plant Breeders Rights Act. It would allow Cabinet to “exempt persons, things or activities, or classes of persons, things or activities” from any provision of these laws or regulations for three years, with the ability renew for a further three years if “necessary to protect national economic security, regional economic security or national food security” provided it is “not likely to pose an unreasonable risk to food safety, animal health, plant health, human health or the environment”. The proposed Section 31.1 does not enact guardrails to prevent misuse of this broad power, as it relies entirely on Cabinet’s discretion. Cabinet may define “economic security” and “national food security” by regulation later, but such definitions are not required.
The CFIA was established in 1997 to consolidate all of Canada’s food and agriculture regulatory functions under one agency. The CFIA is in charge of implementing Canada’s science-based policies to support food safety and environmental and health protection in relation to food and agriculture. It is responsible for enforcing all of the regulations, as well as operating the required laboratories and inspection facilities and overseeing agencies under its responsibility established for administering nine Acts: the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act, Feeds Act, Fertilizers Act, Health of Animals Act, Plant Breeders Rights Act, Plant Protection Act, Safe Food for Canadians Act, Seeds Act, plus the Food and Drugs Act as it relates to food.
Bill C-30 Section 50 would politicize the legal framework governing food, health and environmental safety and would invite self-interested persons (i.e. corporations) to use economic security and food security arguments to lobby Cabinet Ministers to recommend exemptions to laws and regulations they believe impinge on their profitability. Wealthy and powerful actors would have access to this type of strategy and will be in a position to reward those who deliver, while weaker players and the voiceless – future generations and non-human species – will not only be left out, but will often pay the costs and suffer the harms caused by failures to regulate in the public interest.
Cabinet deliberations are kept confidential for twenty years, making any considerations leading to exemptions from CFIA laws or regulations non-transparent. Voters will never know for sure how and why certain exemptions were agreed to, and others were rejected.
Bill C-30’s amendments to empower Cabinet to override CFIA laws and regulations governing agriculture and food, come in the wake of drastic cuts to Agriculture and Agrifood Canada’s research capacity which provides critical knowledge that underpins regulatory decisions, and it follows drastic cuts to the CFIA’s personnel, who have expertise required to understand and implement regulations that not only safeguard our food and agriculture systems to prevent disease, infestation and contamination, but who also operate important structures and frameworks for predictable, transparent and safe operation of complex intuitions and relationships among the many people and entities that comprise our food system. The CFIA’s Departmental Plan for the coming three years shows a nearly $80 million budget cut, and projects 1,627 fewer full time equivalent positions in 2029 compared with 2023. The potential for Cabinet to create 6-year gaps in enforcing any number of laws or regulations would exacerbate this loss of in-house expertise, as it would likely mean relevant CFIA personnel would be reassigned, or their positions terminated during exemption periods.
CFIA’s regulatory authority and expert personnel are key to prevention. They are on the front lines, to detect problems and take action that to avert Canadian food and agriculture crises, such as:
- Addressing animal health issues including Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreaks, which in the USA has spread to dairy cattle and workers, and which continues to spread while the US Center for Disease Control is no longer monitoring or reporting cases in humans;
- Investigating Food poisoning incidents, such as an extended salmonella contamination problem in pistachios imported from Iran. CFIA personnel are investigating and enforcing food recalls to prevent deaths or any further illnesses and hospitalizations from the pathogen;
- Monitoring livestock feed to sold in Canada (whether imported or domestically produced) to ensure it is not contaminated with cancer-causing toxins such as dioxins that would harm animal and human health;
- Surveillance and enforcement to prevent invasive species, pests and plant diseases from entering or spreading within Canada;
- Monitoring the declining capacity of American regulators to detect, prevent or manage food safety hazards and the implications for the Canadian food supply in light of the high volume of, and reliance on fresh and processed foods that Canada imports from the USA.
Exempting certain persons, things and/or activities from the CFIA’s authority, combined with reducing the agency’s capacity even further, would increase the probability of widespread economic, health and environment costs, making Canada more vulnerable to economic and food security crises instead of solving them.
The Spring Economic Update did not inform Parliament or the public of government plans to enable Cabinet to unilaterally suspend food-related laws that have been duly passed by Parliament and to override regulations enacted following formal procedures that include rationale, regulatory analysis and public consultation. This point is the heart of our objection. Every law in Canada was created through the serious, informed, and dedicated work of thousands of people within political parties, the public service, civil society organizations and engaged citizens, and enacted following public debate and vote in Parliament. Regulations are enabled by legislation and must be developed according to the Cabinet Directive on Regulation and the Policy on Regulatory Development, which, among other things, mandate meaningful consultation with affected stakeholders, including Indigenous people. These directives and policies are grounded in the following principles:
- Regulations protect and advance the public interest and support good government: Regulations are justified by a clear rationale in terms of protecting the health, safety, security, social and economic well-being of Canadians, and the environment.
- The regulatory process is modern, open, and transparent: Regulations, and their related activities, are accessible and understandable, and are created, maintained, and reviewed in an open, transparent, and inclusive way that meaningfully engages the public and stakeholders, including Indigenous peoples, early on.
- Regulatory decision-making is evidence-based: Proposals and decisions are based on evidence, robust analysis of costs and benefits, and the assessment of risk, while being open to public scrutiny.
- Regulations support a fair and competitive economy: Regulations should aim to support and promote inclusive economic growth, entrepreneurship, and innovation for the benefit of Canadians and businesses. Opportunities for regulatory cooperation and the development of aligned regulations should be considered and implemented wherever possible.
The laws and regulations under CFIA’s administration have been carefully constructed, yet Bill C-30 would permit Cabinet to undo them without following any transparent process or adhering to any stated principles. Bill C-30 would permit Cabinet to cherry-pick who is or is not exempt from a law or regulation, and Cabinet would be making decisions without a mechanism or evidence to evaluate whether an exemption serves the public interest.
And because it is rare for governments to voluntarily reduce their powers, once these amendments are enacted, they will be available to all future governments. Is the House of Commons Finance Committee comfortable entrusting this much power over food and agriculture laws and regulation to all future Cabinets?
Division 8 of Bill C-30 contains similar provisions that allow Cabinet to overrule the Minister of Health if the Cabinet wishes to register pest control products the Minister has determined are too environmentally harmful for approval.
Bill C-30 follows on the heels of other laws, such as the Building Canada Act, and the 2025 Budget implementation Act amendments to the Red Tape Reduction Act that enable Cabinet or individual Ministers to override other laws and regulations. All of these recent legal and regulatory changes are outside the norms of Canadian governance and indicate an alarming trend toward concentration of power.
Laws and regulations are essential mechanisms of a liberal democracy. Allowing Cabinet—which serves at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and makes its decisions behind closed doors— to issue decrees that determine which laws and regulations no longer apply, or apply only to certain persons, is deeply disrespectful of our democracy and the rule of law.
Bill C-30 undermines public trust in government.
We therefore recommend that the Committee amend Bill C-30 by removing Part 3 Division 7, Section 50 amending the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Act and by removing entirely Part 3, Division 8 amending the Pest Control Products Act.
The National Farmers Union is an organization of, and for, farmers and farmworkers in Canada, working together to democratically achieve agricultural policies that ensure dignity and income security for farmers and farmworkers while protecting and enhancing rural environments for future generations.
Respectfully submitted by
The National Farmers Union
June 4, 2026
