Environment Minister Richard Brown is not apologizing for taking a slow approach to banning lawn pesticides as he gingerly stepped around a meeting with environmentalists Tuesday.
On April 1 this year, a ban on lawn products containing 2,4-D will come into effect on P.E.I. Brown says that will mean 97.1 per cent of herbicides for lawns that had been on store shelves last year won't be there this year. It includes combination products known as weed and feed.
Green Party Leader Sharon Labchuk was also at the meeting, warning that retailers will simply replace past products with new ones containing equally dangerous chemicals that are not banned on P.E.I. but are banned in Ontario and Quebec, for example.
Brown was guest speaker at the annual general meeting of the P.E.I. Environmental Health Co-operative in Charlottetown.
Labchuk was first at the microphone to challenge Brown, saying the ban on just one chemical is far from what is needed.
"What possessed you to think that this legislation that you are bringing in, banning one chemical, was what people of Prince Edward Island wanted?" asked Labchuk.
Brown repeated a refrain through the night, saying that two legislative committees were not prepared to recommend any ban, but Premier Robert Ghiz directed cabinet to take action instead of just talking.
"It's a stepped approach," said Brown. "We have taken the same approach as New Brunswick here."
There will be a big public relations program with a website, media ads, public workshops and events to help explain the ban and encourage sustainable alternatives, the meeting was told.
Brown said that come April 1, a process will begin where complaints about any lawn chemical will be received by government if there is some science provided with the complaint to back up its danger. That chemical will be added to a list, the list will be discussed regularly with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and all three provinces will agree together on which chemicals will move to the banned list.
Others at the meeting wanted a timeline for when the list of banned chemical will expand.
Brown would not commit to dates.
"We have banned one of the worst chemicals, we are told, 2,4-D, from the use on lawns and it's a start," said Brown. "I believe in the stepped approach."
Even with just the one chemical banned, his department has received letters from corporations, saying the province doesn't have the legal authority for the ban. Brown said that the letters were not threatening court action, but the P.E.I. government is prepared to fight.
Golf courses are exempt but are required to use 2,4-D in a controlled manner in isolate spots as needed.
A pesticide ban on golf courses would have shut them down but they are an "economic driver," said Brown.
All other government properties, including roadways, are to go pesticide free as of April 1, he said.
Agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are not affected by the ban, said Brown.
"We have been working with the agriculture community and it has demonstrated to myself and to government that they are working towards reduction and we are going to work with the agriculture community in order to reduce. We are not prepared to shut down the agriculture community on Prince Edward Island."
