Western Committee on Crop Pests: Committee Overview and Terms of Reference
~Est. 1962~
The Western Committee on Crop Pests (WCCP) consists of a widely-based group of pest management experts and researches who meet annually to determine best practices for integrated pest control in Western Canada. The WCCP recommends the selection of safe and effective chemical pest control agents (not necessarily products). The goal of the WCCP is to determine the integrated pest management methods that are cost-effective and do not adversely affect the health of individuals, livestock, wildlife or the environment.
History of the WCCP
The archives of the Western Committee on Crop Pests indicate that the committee was born in 1962 as The Committee on Insecticide Use for Crops In the Prairie Provinces. The founding members were from the Entomology Departments of the Lethbridge, Saskatoon and Winnipeg Research Stations; the Departments of Agriculture of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and a member from the chemical industry.
The Terms of Reference of the committee in 1962 were:
- to determine the best insecticides, their rates of application and possible hazards;
- to determine the basis for such decisions and the necessity for further research;
- to plan for cooperative research on the more important current problems;
- to encourage a regional outlook on common entomological problems; and
- to encourage provincial and federal cooperation.
The terms of reference today remain the same as those developed in 1962, with the addition of industry to item (v), thus reading to encourage provincial, federal and industry co-operation.
In 1966, the group added representatives from British Columbia and from the Food and Drug Directorate and became the Western Committee on Crop Pesticides. This new committee name remained in place until 1975 when the committee formally became the Western Committee on Crop Pests (WCCP). Today the WCCP is a dynamic group representing federal and provincial agriculture departments, federal regulatory agencies, universities, crop commodity groups and the crop protection industry. The committee meets annually to discuss updates of current insect pest issues, research programs in pest management and industry priorities.