The village of Ormstown will soon be a pesticide-free environment.
The municipal council adopted bylaw #139-2022 respecting the uses and restrictions of pesticides and other chemical products during its regular meeting on August 1. The bylaw bans the use of over 35 different fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and rodenticides within the urban perimeter of the village, while allowing for the use of low-impact pesticides with a temporary application permit, and natural biopesticides.
Inspectors with the municipality’s planning department will be tasked with applying the bylaw, which imposes fines of up to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for businesses found to be applying pesticides outside of those allowed.
More information on the application of the bylaw will be made available by the municipality to residents in the coming days.
“We are very proud to say this is our first bylaw on the environment,” said the Ormstown mayor, Christine McAleer, immediately after the by-law was adopted. McAleer noted the decision represented significant work on the part of those concerned, including the councillors and different groups including the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) who made several recommendations. “We feel this is a step in the right direction,” she said.
The bylaw was adapted from a model developed by the Mouvement d’action regional enenvironnement (MARE), a citizen movement aimed at helping citizens and organizations with environmental projects. The bylaw states that “The use of pesticides results in the contamination of water, air, and soil, is detrimental to ecosystems, and may represent a health risk by reducing the life expectancy of those exposed to them,” while noting that in accordance with section 85 of the Municipal Powers Act, “The council may adopt any bylaw to ensure the general welfare of the population.”
Ormstown is the first municipality to have adopted the bylaw proposed by the MARE, which was first tabled on May 2. The content has since been modified following concerns raised by members of the Haut-Saint-Laurent syndicate of the UPA over potential impacts on farmers.
The UPA sent a letter to Ormstown producers who are potentially impacted by the pesticide bylaw, as well as a second (postponed) bylaw protecting trees within the municipality. It alleged that while the general wording of the draft bylaws stipulated that they would only apply within the urban perimeter, “A careful reading of the text indicates that, on the contrary, activities in the agricultural zone would not be exempt from certain provisions.” Most notably, the original bylaw draft included an obligation for agricultural producers to provide the municipality with pesticide registries on an annual basis.
Ormstown responded favourably to a meeting request by the UPA, and representatives from the local syndicate met with the council, director general, and inspectors, as well as members of MARE and the municipality’s environment committee, on July 7. A second letter was subsequently sent to Ormstown producers by the UPA; it reported on the meeting and voiced concerns over the management and interpretation of pesticide registries, if the municipality followed through on requiring producers to submit this information.
“All of the requests by the UPA were integrated into the bylaw,” says McAleer, including an amendment to the section on pesticide registries that now requires farmers submit, only upon request, the annual registry they are already required to keep by the Ministry of Environment.
“It was a good exchange,” says Catherine Turgeon, the UPA advisor for the Haut-Saint-Laurent syndicate.
“They showed an openness to meet with us, and they listened,” she says, noting the UPA hopes to develop this reflex in municipalities to work with the organization. “The experience with the municipality of Ormstown was a first step, and a positive one,” she says.