Landscape Chemicals Banned across Canada

Spring 2009

In 2007, the province of Alberta was found to have Canada’s highest number of pesticide poisonings with 1,021 cases, 45% of which involved children under the age of six. In a May 2008 poll, 87% of Albertans supported banning the “cosmetic use” of pesticides on lawns and gardens. Six months later, on November 12, Alberta outlawed the use of herbicide-fertilizer lawn care mixtures. Nova Scotia passed a law restricting “cosmetic” pesticide use in 2003, Quebec has passed a ban that helped cut pesticide use by 50%, and the British Columbia provincial government is considering a similar ban.

The Canadian Cancer Society praised Alberta’s action as an “appropriate first step to limit the risk to human health and the environment.” Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and more than 100 Canadian cities have now enacted lawn and landscape chemical bans but the pesticide makers are fighting back. Last October, Dow AgroSciences filed a notice of intent to seek compensation from the Canadian government over Quebec’s provincial ban. Under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Dow (which makes the weed-killer 2,4-D), claimed the Quebec ban “breaches legal protections owed by Canada to U.S. investors.” Chemtura filed a similar NAFTA-based claim over Canada’s ban on lindane for seed treatment.

“Citizens in every corner of the country are outraged that a U.S.- based transnational firm would attack Quebec’s environmental laws,” said Council of Canadians trade expert Steven Shrybman. He accused NAFTA of putting “corporate profit ahead of human and environmental health.” Kathleen Cooper of the Canadian Environmental Law Association expressed alarm that chemical producers can invoke NAFTA to “undermine the decisions of democratically elected governments.”

The Council of Canadians is calling on Ottawa to renegotiate NAFTA with the Obama Administration to ban companies from suing local governments. Meanwhile, Ontario is moving ahead on an even tougher provincial cosmetic pesticide ban—including a ban on Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.

In the wake of provincial laws banning landscape chemicals, the Canadian division of Home Depot announced on Earth Day, April 22, 2008, that it would stop selling 60 pesticides in its 162 Canadian stores by year’s end and increase its selection of eco-friendly alternatives. Home Depot Canada is the first major home improvement retailer to stop selling such pesticides nationwide. On the same day, Canadian Tire, Canada’s largest lawn and garden retailer, announced: “We’ve listened to our customers and [have] started phasing out these products.” Beyond Pesticides notes that Home Depot’s actions in Canada are in “stark contrast to the United States, where Home Depot’s U.S. parent continues to sell these products.”