Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship advises requirements placing tighter restrictions on herbicide for retailers are in effect. Tighter restrictions on herbicide use designed to provide additional protection for children, pets and the environment took effect Jan. 1.
Amendments to the Environment Act and its regulations set out rules for which pesticides are allowed for general use and which pesticides are allowed under certain conditions or for specific activities. The act also governs the sale of prescribed pesticides and details any exceptions to their use.
The use of any herbicide not on the allowable list is now prohibited on residential lawns, schoolyards, hospital grounds and at child-care centres for cosmetic weed control. Allowable herbicides include non-conventional herbicides and bio-herbicides approved by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
These restrictions do not apply to use in agriculture, forestry, sod farms, golf courses, protection of public health or safety, or any other prescribed activity or purpose. Further exemptions include use for controlling poisonous plants, alien invasive species, maintenance of specialty turf as well as professional sports fields and in the application of the Noxious Weeds Act.
Allowable herbicides include products that contain the following active ingredients:
- acetic acid;
- fatty acids (including soaps, ammonium soaps and potassium salts);
- chondrostereum purpureum strain pfc2139;
- citric acid;
- corn gluten meal;
- iron (present as fehedta);
- iron (ferrous or ferric) sulfate;
- lactic acid;
- liquid corn gluten;
- phoma macrostoma strain 94-44b;
- sclerotinia minor;
- sodium chloride;
- streptomyces acidiscabies strain rl-110t; and
- thaxtomin A.
These new rules are similar to restrictions that currently exist in other provinces, such as Ontario and Nova Scotia, making it easier for large retailers to develop a national strategy for the sale and handling of pesticides. Retailers will be required to ensure the public does not have direct access to products containing prohibited active ingredients.
The Manitoba government will continue to work with industry, municipalities and non-governmental organizations to create and maintain awareness of the new regulatory requirements. Information on the initiative is available at www.manitoba.ca/pesticide-reduction.
