'Our organization isn't done pushing back against this'

Thursday, June 11, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Grain Farmers of Ontario plans to continue its fight against the provincial government’s newly released regulations controlling neonicotinoid-treated seed use and sales.

The regulations take effect July 1 and will be phased in over two years. The government’s goal is an 80 per cent reduction in acres planted with neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds by 2017. Currently almost 100 per cent of corn and 60 per cent of soybean seeds used in Ontario are treated with the insecticide linked to bee deaths, the government says in its June 9 press release.

The new rules are part of the government’s strategy to improve pollinator health in Ontario. The province will also develop a pollinator health action plan.

Grain Farmers isn’t planning any immediate action, chair Mark Brock says. But once it reviews and digests the regulations released Tuesday during a media technical briefing, the group will consider exploring “some legal recourse and see if there is an opportunity to challenge this regulation. With the accelerated time line it was brought in under, we feel like our voice wasn’t heard.”

Brock notes “our organization isn’t done pushing back against this.”

In response, Environment and Climate Change Ministry spokesperson Kate Jordan says “we will continue to have a dialogue with the farming community but the rules do come into effect July 1st. It is a phased-in approach.”

Brock says changes the government made to the final regulations based on what it heard during the consultations are superficial.

Some of the changes outlined in the government’s release include:

• Allowing farmers additional time to take integrated pest management training.
• Encouraging early participation in integrated pest management training by offering it free for the first year until Sept. 2016. After successfully completing the training farmers get a certificate that’s valid for five years.
• A commitment to publicly reported amalgamated sales and seed treatment data for neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seeds to track the regulation’s effectiveness.
• Allowing professional pest advisers to supervise other people to conduct the pest assessments.

Stephen Denys, Pride Seeds vice president of sales and marketing, agrees with Brock the changes “were very minor.” The regulations are still very onerous for farmers and seed sellers, who will have to get a new treated seed vendor’s license along with meeting other requirements.

“What the government has said with these regulations is they do not trust farmers to make their own decisions,” he notes. “Now they’re going to use seed companies as part of an audit trail to ensure that farmers abide by the law.”

Denys says there are wide-ranging repercussions with the new Class 12 the regulations establish under the Ontario Pesticides Act for corn and soybean treated seeds. The Ontario government “can unilaterally now put any product under Class 12” without considering the federal regulatory system or consulting the province’s own pesticide advisory committee.

The herbicide “glyphosate could be targeted and put under this Class 12 without any other review federally or provincially,” he says by way of example, adding the government seems to be moving in a direction where farmers won’t be able to use any input products on their farm without government permission.

Denys explains farmers have been busy planting this spring and likely haven’t been paying much attention to the consultations for the regulations. Once they have a closer look and see what the regulations mean for their farm, “they’re going to get mad. I don’t think the government has felt the full anger of the rank and file farm unit yet,” he notes.

The Ontario Beekeepers’ Association says in its June 9 press release the government did the right thing to bring in the regulations. The association commended the government for “having the courage to act in the face of intensive lobbying and pressure from the AgChem industry seeking to protect their profits.” BF