Avis Antel

In April 2006, Quebec enacted the third and final phase of its Pesticide Management Code, giving Quebec the toughest standards in North America at that time. With a ban on 20 active ingredients including 2,4-D, many lawn-care products were made unavailable to the Quebec market.

Since then, other areas have followed suit, with Ontario enacting its ban three years later.

Health Canada insists that, if used as directed, many of the banned products are safe, but the bans have been welcomed by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and other environmental activists who warn that pesticides have been linked to childhood cancer, birth defects and neurological disease. Quebec environmental activist Michel Gaudet points out that Sweden prohibited 2,4-D in 1977 and 12 years later, the rate of increase in some cancers has slowed or reversed.

However, manufacturers of products containing the banned chemicals were not pleased. American chemical manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, is proceeding with a threatened suit against the federal government, seeking a repeal of Quebec's ban on lawn pesticides containing 2,4-D and at least $2 million in damages, saying that the ban contravenes the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The suit contends that the ban is not based on science, and should have been re-examined after the federal Health Canada pest-management regulatory agency had declared 2,4-D safe if used as directed. According to Dow, the ban amounts to an unfair "expropriation" of the company's Quebec pesticide business and Canada is breaching its obligations under Chapter 11 of NAFTA.

Ottawa's Trade Minister had responded by asserting that NAFTA preserves Canada's ability to regulate in the public interest to protect health and the environment. Under NAFTA, Dow must file its case against the federal government even though its objection is to legislation from Quebec.