Risky Business: Canada’s Changing Science-Based Policy and Regulatory Regime

This text takes a look at Canada’s science-based policy and regulatory regime. It asks what risks Canadians might be exposed to as fiscal pressures strain the capacity of regulators in areas such as food, drugs, pesticides, fisheries, and the environment. The first major part of this book focuses the reader’s attention on diverse and major themes and issues that pervade science-based regulatory regimes today. The second part suggests a framework for analysis and endeavours to present both sympathetic and critical perspectives on the inner-workings of regulatory departments and agencies in the area of the protection of human and environmental health and safety. Covering such topics as the organizational evolution of regulatory agencies, regulatory bodies’ changing sources and levels of funding, a review of the independence of science, and the increased potential for realization of risk, these essays point to the need for these regulators to operate with openness and accessibility in order to maintain public confidence. Indeed, the contributors argue that this openness is crucial to both democratic governance and the development of innovative knowledge economies.