Manitoba pesticide ban needs provincial review, municipalities say

Towns and cities in Manitoba are struggling to curb the spread of weeds this spring, and it's all due to a cosmetic pesticide ban implemented two years ago, the executive director of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) says.

Joe Masi with the AMMsaid theban has resulted in a weed boom that is costing municipalities more time and money to keepunder control.

In place of the banned products, current pesticides that are availableare more expensive and also appear to be less effective weed killers, Masi said.

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"Municipalities are really feeling the cost crunch of trying to keep the [same] level of service as they have in the past, while at the same time deal with the increased costs that are significant," he said. "You have to use more ofit on your lawns, and therefore more of it is going into the sewer systems."

Masi also worries that an increase in weeds in grassy public spaces may give tourists a bad impression of Manitoba destinations.

"The municipalities want to do a good job to keep their communities looking [good]. The costs are just becoming far more than they can handle to deal with this problem," he said. "This makes communities a little less attractive then they were in the past."

Costs'increased eight/nine fold'

Masi said Steinbach is one city in Manitoba where the war on weeds seems to be a losing battle.

The municipality has come out publicly and said it is committed to maintaining the same level of cosmetic weed control services it's always had. Masi said that hasmeant the costs of landscaping "have increased eight/nine fold" in the southeastern Manitoba city.

"Other communities, Neepawa, the city of Portage [la Prairie];they've all expressed concern with this regulation," he said. "When we have other issues to deal with as municipalitieson top of these like infrastructure, getting clean water to our communities, rec centres these additional costs are really putting a strain on budgets."

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Masi said he is not alone in questioning whether the pesticide ban, as it was written,is really necessary. He maintains that if Health Canada says glyphosate(one of theherbicides restricted in Manitoba) is safe, it isn't clear why the province would ban cosmetic pesticides.

"Previously things were controlled better with what was used. It was a federally-approved pesticide, so if the federal government has approved it, why in Manitoba do we feel we now have to ban it?" he said."I'm not sure really at the end of the day what we're accomplishing with this regulation."

Last spring, the World Health Organization saidglyphosate, which is found in Roundup, is "probably carcinogenic."

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The AMMhas suggested the province allow licenced applicators to be the only people legally allowed to use the banned pesticide on lawns. That would help ensure the products are used properly and in the right doses, Masi said.

"We obviously don't want overuse of these chemicals," Masi said, adding he wants the province to review the legislation.

He could be in luck. In 2013, Brian Pallisterurged then-premier Greg Selinger to rethink the ban.

If Masi gets hisreview, andthe new government decides to side with the policy after the process runs its course, hethinks Premier Pallister should look at what it's costing towns and cities, and thenfairly compensate them for the increased amount of resources associated with fighting weeds.