Ontario grain farmers fight to delay ban on pesticides
Farmers say in court that restriction creates an ‘impossible situation’
The Grain Farmers of Ontario are taking the province to court over regulations that restrict the use of a controversial class of pesticides targeted by environmentalists concerned about bee deaths.
In a notice of application filed in Superior Court in Toronto Friday, the organization representing 28,000 corn, soybean and wheat producers in Ontario asked the court to delay the implementation of the regulation until May 1, 2016, “or such time as the requirements of the regulation can reasonably be met.” The province announced its intention to become the first jurisdiction in North America to restrict the use of neonicotinoid pesticides this month, and limits on the use of neonic-treated seeds were to go into effect Wednesday.
Under the new regulations, farmers who want to use treated seeds on more than half of their land must prepare a report demonstrating the need for the pesticide and submit to a soil inspection to determine the presence of pests. In the court application, the grain farmers argued this doesn’t make sense, because farmers have already planted their fields for the season with neonictreated seeds and the soil inspection will therefore find fewer pests than the threshold for permission to use the pesticide.
“This creates an impossible situation for farmers,” the notice of application reads. “The consequences of the regulation are senseless and obviously harmful.”
Neonic-treated seeds distribute pesticides through the plant as it grows. By 2017, the province plans to reduce the number of acres planted with neonics by 80 per cent.
Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the Ontario government started investigating the role of the pesticides in mass bee deaths at 242 bee yards in 2012, finding residues from the pesticide at 80 per cent of the yards tested. But beekeepers are divided on how much of a role neonics are playing in bee deaths and what action to take. The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association supports an outright ban, while the Canadian Honey Council prefers a collaborative solution with farmers.
Meanwhile, farmers and the pesticide industry say it’s not necessary to ban the pesticides outright to protect bee health. Measures to reduce pesticide-laced dust exposure during 2014 and 2015 planting have already reduced harm to bees by 80 per cent compared with 2013, according to Health Canada. In Alberta, bees appear to be relatively healthy despite foraging for pollen among 20-million acres of canola crops treated with the same neonic pesticides as the ones used in Ontario for the last 10 years.
In an emailed statement, a spokesman for Ontario Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray said “it would be inappropriate to comment on specifics” because the matter is before the courts. The statement said the new rules were the result of an extensive consultation process with farmers, the public and other interested parties.
But Grain Farmers of Ontario chairman Mark Brock said the outcome of the process appeared to have been decided from the beginning.
“It would be in all of our best interests if we could take a more collaborative approach to dealing with this pollinator health issue as a whole,” Brock said in a teleconference with media Monday. “The single-mindedness of the government to go down the path they have shows how ineffective it can be, in terms of trying to accomplish the goal they have in mind.”
The court is scheduled to hear the application on Aug. 4, but a lawyer for the Grain Farmers of Ontario said he is trying to secure an earlier date some time in July in the hopes of winning a reprieve before farmers have to start submitting soil inspections and reports.