JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The town of St. Lazare is updating its pesticide bylaw, banning a wider range of products and extending the regulations limiting their use to private companies involved in landscaping and ground maintenance.
The aim of the move is to protect the health of residents and safeguard against contaminating the town’s water supply, according to St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance.
“The presence of pesticides and fertilizers in water sources can lead to potential health risks for residents in your municipality,” Lachance said, explaining that St. Lazare relies on ground sources for its water supply.
St. Lazare council last month unveiled the proposed updates to its original pesticide bylaw, which was adopted 23 years ago. It was scheduled to vote to approve the latest updates at yesterday evening’s council meeting.
“It’s high time that we update this bylaw,” Lachance said during the Sept. 12 town council meeting.
The bylaw update comes following recommendations to ban the use of neonicotinoids, glyphosate and other pesticides. Neonicotinoids are insecticides that are absorbed by plants that leave residues in pollen and nectar, making them toxic to bees, while glyphosates are herbicides commonly used on lawns and gardens.
These recommendations were made by the town’s environmental committee and environmental protection groups MARE – Mouvement d’action regional en environnement – and Mères au Front. The two organizations had produced a study on pesticide usage in the town of Ormstown, southwest of Valleyfield, leading to that municipality adopting a bylaw in 2022 banning the use of these substances, Lachance said.
This led Lachance to invite the groups to study the use of pesticides in St. Lazare, she explained.
Lyne Mousseau, who heads St. Lazare’s environmental department, said the study was used as the basis to update the town’s old pesticide bylaw “considering that many companies are involved in grounds maintenance in St. Lazare and apply products without authorization.”
Extending the restrictions of pesticide and herbicide products is a step in the right direction to better protect the environment, said Catherine Décarie, president of the Société d’horticulture et d’environnement de Saint-Lazare.
“I applaud the city for wanting to be more restrictive in applying these pesticides,” Décarie said. “Because at the end of the day, these pesticides trickle down into our water table.
“Bottom line, people need to wake up and understand that if they keep putting chemicals on their property, at the end, they might be drinking it,” she added.
Décarie, who is a volunteer with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project, also pointed to the importance of protecting pollinators by eliminating the use of harmful pesticides.
“We all know today that pollinators are essential for our food,” Décarie said. “There’s been a decline of roughly 75 per cent in the past decade of pollinators. And a big part of the problem is herbicides and pesticides.”
Lachance said the municipality will provide information to residents, as some have been misled when it comes to the use of certain insecticide and herbicide brands that market their products as “natural,” which gives a false impression about how these chemicals impact the environment.
“They say it’s natural and safe. But it’s a poison, it’s killing insects,” including pollinators, she said.
The town will launch an awareness campaign aimed at educating residents regarding the use of pesticides and fertilizers over the next few months, Lachance added.