P.E.I. pesticide ban to differ from Nova Scotia's

P.E.I.'s pesticide ban — which comes into effect April 1 — differs from legislation proposed in Nova Scotia, meaning a different set of lawn care products could be sold on either side of the Northumberland Strait.

P.E.I.'s banned list includes more than 240 products, many of which contain the chemical 2,4-D. It also includes any pesticide sold in concentrated or granular form.

The legislation mirrors a similar ban in New Brunswick.

"The list is a good start, but it's too short," said Tony Reddin, P.E.I. spokesman for the Sierra Club of Canada.

Reddin wants to know when the P.E.I. government will ban more chemicals or, he said, "We think the better choice would be to base the restrictions on a list of substances that would be allowed. That would be much easier to keep track of, instead of trying to continually add to a list."

Nova Scotia is set to take this approach.

The province has held public consultations based on a plan similar to the pesticide bylaw in Halifax. This includes a relatively short list of organic ingredients that are allowed, including corn gluten and insecticidal soaps. Everything else is banned.

"As companies create new products, the onus is on them to prove that they're safe and it prevents new innovations and chemicals that could be dangerous from automatically being okayed," said said Chris Benjamin, spokesman for the Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia.

Some of the organic products approved by the City of Halifax are on P.E.I.'s list of banned substances because they're sold in concentrated or granular form.

P.E.I.'s environment minister Richard Brown, who could not be reached for comment, has said in the past he wanted all three Maritime provinces to bring in similar bans.