Justin Duncan Appointed; Waivers for New Substances

Summary#

• The Minister of the Environment appointed Justin Duncan to the roster of review officers for a term of three years, starting April 1, 2025.
• The Minister also waived some information-collection requirements under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 for several companies that are proposing to import or manufacture new living organisms or chemical substances in Canada.

What it does#

• Appointment
  • Adds Justin Duncan (Winnipeg, Manitoba) to the roster of review officers. The term is three years, effective April 1, 2025.
• Waivers for living organisms (information normally required under subsection 106(1) of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999)
  • The notice lists companies that were granted waivers of some test or reporting requirements. The companies named include:
    • AskBio Inc.
    • Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc.
    • Boeringer‑Ingelheim Canada Ltd.
    • Future Fields
    • Janssen Inc.
    • PCI Pharma Services
    • Qeen Biotechnologies
    • Vaccigen
  • The waived items are mainly data from tests on environmental effects (aquatic and terrestrial plants, invertebrates and vertebrates), some ecological-effect tests, and tests of antibiotic susceptibility. The table in the notice shows which specific test types were waived for each company.
• Waivers for substances (information normally required under subsection 81(1) of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999)
  • The notice lists companies that were granted waivers for certain physical–chemical or biodegradation data. The companies named include:
    • 3M Healthcare Canada Company Limited
    • Azelis Canada Inc.
    • Cabot Canada Ltd.
    • Covestro LLC
    • Milliken Chemical
    • NextStar Energy Inc.
    • PPG Canada Inc.
  • Waived items include tests or data such as ready biodegradation, octanol/water partition coefficient, vapour pressure, density, and hydrolysis rate as a function of pH. Some items were waived more than once for a given company (the notice shows counts in brackets).
• Context note
  • The decision to grant waivers is made case-by-case by the Minister of the Environment in consultation with the Minister of Health. The notice says roughly 300 regulatory declarations are submitted each year and about 100 waivers are granted annually for chemicals, polymers and living organisms.

Who's affected#

• The specific companies named in the notice.
• Other businesses that import or manufacture new living organisms or chemical substances in Canada — they may request similar waivers.
• Regulators and public-interest groups who track environmental testing and safety information, because the waivers mean less test data was provided publicly for these cases.
• The notice does not list the precise organisms or chemical identities tied to each waiver, so it is not clear from the published table exactly which products or organisms are involved.

Why it matters#

• For companies: waivers can lower the cost and time needed to bring a new organism or substance into Canada by reducing required testing.
• For the public and scientists: waivers mean less publicly available environmental and safety data about some new organisms and substances. That can make it harder to independently assess potential environmental risks.
• For oversight: the appointment to the roster of review officers affects who will review and oversee new-substance decisions under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999.
• Numbers given in the notice (about 300 declarations and 100 waivers per year) show this is a routine but recurring part of how new substances and organisms are regulated in Canada.