Comment submission from…

Comment submission from Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trade Association Turfgrass Management Group (re: Proposed Amendments to the Pesticide Regulation 63/09 General ERO # 019-0601)

Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association represents two broad areas of the Green Industry: those that grow and sell plant material and garden products and those that design, install and maintain industrial, commercial, institutional, public, recreational and residential green-spaces, lawns, landscapes and gardens.

As green space professionals, Landscape Ontario’s Turfgrass Management Group supports the strengthening of provincial pesticide laws that will result in more uniform and effective regulation across all communities while protecting public health and the environment. As the industry responsible for the design, installation and maintenance of Ontario’s green infrastructure we care about our customers, employees, ourselves and environmental stewardship. As turf care professionals, we will use only products that Health Canada considers acceptable for use. Even within this framework, we will discourage the use of any pesticide product except within the principles of optimum horticultural practices.

We support amendments to Ontario’s Pesticides Act and Regulation 63/09 that would reduce complexity and modernize pesticide management in Ontario while assuring protection of human health and the environment.

Our Position:

• Fully support the elimination of the Ontario Pesticide Advisory Committee (OPAC).
• Fully support the harmonization of Ontario’s pesticides classes with the federal classification system under Health Canada’s Pest Control Products Act (PCPA).
• Completely agree that Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), under the authority of the Pest Control Products Act registers pesticides after completing a rigorous review of scientific studies on potential impacts on human health and the environment. They are resourced and equipped to review and register pesticides for all of Canada.

Concerns with the Regulation:

• The Cosmetic Pesticide Ban, although promoted as intending to increase public health and environmental safety and foster industry innovation, has failed to do so. In fact, it has created an unregulated “black market”. Looking for solutions to their landscape problems, the Ontario public has turned to purchasing illegal or unregistered pesticides from the US or other provinces either directly or, ever more increasingly, through internet sales. Maintaining the cosmetic pesticide ban in its current form will only encourage the continuation of a pesticide black market and the negative environmental and public health impacts that come with unhealthy lawns.
• The ban not only effectively took the use pesticides out of the hands of licensed professionals and placed it into an underground, unregulated, market, it stifled the innovation and introduction of new products.
• There are 157,900 hectares of turfgrass in Ontario that serve a profound environmental, social and economic function, as demonstrated by years of scientific research. However, by definition, the Cosmetic Pesticide Ban has deemed two thirds of this turfgrass (more than 130,000 hectares in Ontario) as serving only a cosmetic function.

Recommendations to Improve Regulations and Raise the Bar on Protecting the Environment:

• The existing unregulated ‘black market’ of pesticide use did not exist prior to the Ban’s implementation 10 years ago. It can be eliminated by providing an exemption to allow only trained professionals, certified or licensed by the province and accredited through IPM, to treat private property and commercial lawns using products approved for such use by Health Canada. These would be the same professionals who can currently treat our golf courses, specialty turf, and, as proposed, our cemeteries.
• The pesticides that are currently banned for ‘cosmetic use’ (use on lawns) in Ontario are registered for such use by Health Canada and include products acknowledged as safe to use on golf courses, parks, cemeteries and even flea and tick treatment for pets.
• Beyond closing the black market, allowing certified professionals to use pest control products, like weed and insect controls, will lead to healthier turfgrass in our lawns and greenspaces across Ontario. The positive impacts of healthy lawns are significant with proven environmental and community benefits. Healthier lawns mean higher carbon sequestration, lower temperatures, cleaner air, erosion prevention, and less water runoff and a usable, safe, outdoor environment.
• To foster innovation and encourage the inclusion of a wider range of low risk pest control products within the proposed “List of Active Ingredients Authorized for Cosmetic Uses” (Allowable List), the rules set out in section 17 that details criteria for inclusion in the Allowable List should be prefaced with the following wording: “Products eligible for consideration must have some, but not necessarily all, of the following characteristics”. This approach in considering a product’s eligibility should have bearing on the Director’s decision for product inclusion, as this exact wording is also stated in PMRA DIR2012-01 “Guidelines for the Registration of Non-Conventional Pest Control Products”.

The ban introduced in 2009, is simply not working as intended, in fact, it is broken.

Our proposal – to introduce an exemption for trained, certified / licensed, IPM accredited professionals to use pest control products as approved by Health Canada for the care of private and commercial lawns – will raise the bar on protecting the environment, through healthy lawns and their associated benefits, and severely curtail the pesticide black market.