Risky Business

by Doern, G. Bruce; Reed, Ted; Reed, Edward James

• ISBN13: 9780802082626
• ISBN10: 0802082629
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr

Summary

Risky Business is a comprehensive 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 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.

Author Biography

G. Bruce Doern is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, and the Politics Department at the University of Exeter. Ted Reed is a Research Fellow in the Carleton Research Unit on Innovation, Science and Environment (CRUISE) at Carleton University and is also a Lecturer with the Department of Environmental Studies and Geography at Carleton.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Contributors	ix
Canada's Changing Science-Based Policy and Regulatory Regime: Issues and Framework	3	(28)
G. Bruce Doern
Ted Reed
Part 1: Macro-Issues and Policy Controversies
Government Science and the Public Interest	31	(18)
John de la Mothe
Between Expertise and Bureaucracy: Risk Management Trapped at the Science-Policy Interface	49	(26)
William Leiss
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease): Lessons for Public Policy	75	(27)
Erik Millstone
Patrick van Zwanenberg
Can Eco-Labelling Undermine International Agreement on Science-Based Standards?	102	(29)
Dennis Browne with
Ramesh Chaitoo
Michael Hart
Risk-Based Regulatory Responses in Global Food Trade: A Case Study of Guatemalan Raspberry Imports into the United States and Canada, 1996-1998	131	(25)
Douglas Powell
Socioeconomic versus Science-Based Regulation: Informal Influences on the Formal Regulation of rbST in Canada	156	(29)
Mark R. MacDonald
Part 2: Science in Regulatory and Risk Management Institutions
The Therapeutic Products Programme: From Traditional Science-Based Regulator to Science-Based Risk-Benefit Manager?	185	(23)
G. Bruce Doern
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Modernizing Science-Based Regulation	208	(26)
Michael J. Prince
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency: The Resilience of Science in Pesticide Regulation	234	(27)
Ivo Krupka
Fisheries and Oceans Canada: Science and Conservation	261	(25)
Daniel E. Lane
Patient Science verus Science on Demand: The Stretching of Green Science at Environment Canada	286	(21)
G. Bruce Doern
A Question of Balance: New Approaches for Science-Based Regulation	307	(27)
Bill Jarvis
Central Agencies, Horizontal Issues, and Precarious Values: Coordinating Science Policy in the Federal Government	334	(29)
Evert Lindquist
Margaret Barker
Conclusions: New Institutions and Prospects for Change	363
G. Bruce Doern
Ted Reed