Pesticide regulation changes raise questions in Northeastern Ontario

Pesticide regulation changes raise questions in Northeastern Ontario

Bill C-30 allows cabinet to authorize use of banned pesticides

Some in northeastern Ontario say they have questions about a new law which allows the Prime Minister’s cabinet to authorize the use of pesticides, even if Health Canada has deemed them unsafe.

Bill C-30 — which passed June 18 — gives cabinet authority to greenlight any pesticide that ministers feel is in the interest of national economic or food security. The bill doesn't define or clarify what the national economic or food security interests would be.

Carney government passes law allowing authorization of banned pesticides

The government's explanation felt vague, said Camille Tremblay Beaulieu, the co-executive director of Sudbury Shared Harvest, a charity that promotes local food production and sustainable practices.

“There's all these questions now in my mind of the implications that it could have, not only for our gardens but also for people who eat them and how we'll know what's on our food,” she said.

One of her concerns, Tremblay Beaulieu said, was if the government would be transparent with the public and whether food affected by banned pesticides would be labeled.

She also wanted to know if the government had considered any alternatives before taking this step.

“It's very, very, very difficult once you've done something to take certain actions back," Tremblay Beaulieu said.

“Living in Sudbury, we saw how hard it was just to have forests grow back after all the mining impact we had, right? We're still living with a lot of repercussions of that."

According to Sen. Rosa Galvez, scientists, public health and environmental experts were not given the chance to testify in front of Parliament about the legislation.

A coalition of environmental organizations also wrote in an open letter that they were not consulted and related advisory committees did not study the changes.

But the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association has thrown its support behind Bill C-30, writing that the bill "broadens the mandate of Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to consider the impact of their decisions on Canada’s food supply and agricultural competitiveness.”

Will Runnalls, a farmer in the Timiskaming District, said he'd had to battle an infestation of swede midges (a kind of fly), about a decade ago, which devastated canola production in northern Ontario.

Runnalls said they lost around 75 per cent of their crops and it took a year to get emergency authorization to use the pesticide they needed.

“Maybe [if this power had been in place] you could have rectified the problem in that crop year,” Runnalls said.

“It was bad for us, but it’s not really that large in the big picture. But if you had that sort of infestation in Western Canada, where there’s 20 million acres of canola, you could see how [the impact] could be huge.”

While he said he agreed food security is important, and Canada could have a need for these powers in the future, Runnalls also acknowledged: “On the other hand, too, [this bill] is allowing some decision-making to be political.”

Runnalls had questions about what the threshold would be for using the new powers.

“Hopefully it’s just for extreme circumstances,” he added.

“I’ve read both sides and as a farmer, I’d say I’m indifferent right now and in the middle. And we’ll see what happens.”

Gabrielle is an Ottawa-based journalist with eclectic interests. She's spoken to video game developers, city councillors, neuroscientists and small business owners alike. Reach out to her for any reason at gabrielle.huston@cbc.ca.