Pesticides in Canada: Jurisdictional Issue Regarding Sale of Prohibited Products

In Canada, jurisdiction over environmental matters is not exclusively assigned to one level of government. Rather, environmental regulations on a particular topic can be found at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government. Nowhere has this fact become more apparent than in the regulation of pesticides. A number of years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a municipal by-law (in Hudson, Quebec) that banned the application of pesticides for "cosmetic" purposes. Following that ruling, many Canadian municipalities enacted similar by-laws. The federal government in Canada regulates the manufacture and import of pesticides in Canada, while the province regulates the application of pesticides and licences professional applicators. Thus, many municipalities have banned the cosmetic use of pesticides that have been approved by the federal government for use in Canada. The result - some pesticides approved for use in Canada by the federal government are now (legally) on store shelves in municipalities that ban the application of those pesticides. A CBC News story recently pointed this out by covering efforts by an environmental NGO (Western Canada Wilderness Committee) to have this "loophole" closed. Products were on sale at the local Canadian Tire store.