OTTAWA – As the Ontario Government prepares to introduce legislation banning lawn and garden pesticides, a new report offers recommendations based on an evaluation of a similar provincial ban already in place in Quebec.
The David Suzuki Foundation and Équiterre, a leading environmental group in Quebec, teamed up to produce Pesticide Free? Oui! – An Analysis of Quebec’s Pesticides Management Code. The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the Quebec regulation, recommends measures to improve the Code and encourages other provinces to adopt similar policies to ban lawn and garden pesticides.
Passed in 2003 and fully implemented in 2006, Quebec’s Pesticides Management Code prohibits the use of 20 pesticide active ingredients on public and private lawns across Quebec, and the retail sale of products containing these ingredients. The prohibited active ingredients are found in approximately 200 pesticide products, including the popular lawn herbicide 2,4-D.
Quebec is currently the only province that restricts the use and sale
of pesticides registered by the federal Pest Management Regulatory
Agency. Across Canada, 140 municipalities have adopted bylaws
restricting the use of pesticides on public and private property.
Municipalities, however, generally lack jurisdiction to regulate
pesticide sales.
Key recommendations for Ontario and other provinces considering bans on cosmetic pesticides include:
• using the precautionary principle as the guiding rule;
• structuring the ban with reference to a “white list” of products authorized for sale and use;
• extending the ban to all cosmetic uses of pesticides, province-wide; and,
• developing a thorough and effective enforcement program.
At present, there are approximately 1,000 commercial pesticide products for sale in Canada that cannot be sold in other nations because of health and environmental concerns.
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