Ecological nutrient management and soil health act
A number of jurisdictions in the US are codifying soil health in legislative interventions and the EU is in a consultation to do so. Most of those in the US are somewhat limited, focusing on providing authority for research, education, committee structures and processes, property tax relief, action plan development and grant programs. However, it represents a significant shift since the mid 2010s (Delmendo et al., 2021). The NDP federal private member's bill, C-290, is also somewhat limited, concentrating on providing authority for a pan-Canadian soil health strategy. For many of these elements in the US and EU, legislative authority is not necessary in the Canadian governance tradition
A new Act should integrate many actions related to soil health, nutrient management and fertilizer approvals and regulation (see also Soil Conservation Council of Canada and Compost Council of Canada, 2022), more specifically:
- a preamble on the importance of soil health and Canadian commitments to improving it
- an expanded set of definitions related to soil health and associated parameters
- establishing a national soil health advisory roundtable, with expertise from the provinces, NGOs, research community and soil products industries
- requiring reports every 5 years, prepared by the federal government, but vetted by the advisory committee on the state of soil health, soil-related pollution problems, and recommendations for actions that flow from the assessment
- building on elements of the PEI Agricultural Crop Rotation Act, and some requirements under some provincial Production Insurance programs, specifying the need for certain kinds of crop rotations on a regional basis unless farmers are able to demonstrate based on their farm's soil health that meeting the Act's requirements is unnecessary; administered by provincial soil health advisory units (see Efficiency)
- a subsection on the regulation of fertilizer approvals and imports would be roughly comparable to the existing act with changes as described under Efficiency and Substitution
- establishing a re-evaluation processes for approved materials, to permit re-assessments of both products and their uses as soil health improves
- improved public reporting on fertilizer and secondary materials approvals, comparable to Decision Documents produced for pesticides, whether approvals or re-registrations
