Pesticides cost Canadian farmers about 50 per cent more than
U.S. farmers, according to price tracking by Ridgetown campus of the University
of Guelph.
That, says Craig Hunter who works on pesticide issues for
the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, explains why the rules
need to change.
The federal government’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency
is proposing changes and says this time it will put them into the Pesticides Act
so there will be teeth instead of the current situation which is voluntary
compliance.
In his regular column in The Grower newspaper for fruit and
vegetable growers, Hunter outlines the history of pesticide import regulations
and price differences with the United States.
Until 1977, pesticides could be brought in from the U.S.
The companies complained that they needed import controls so
they could pay for research, container disposal and the higher costs of
distributing pesticides across our vast nation to a much smaller market than
the U.S.
They warned that the Canadian industry would decline, if not
disappear, if they failed to get their way.
They got their way, and they cut Canadian research, reduced
Canadian production and employees and merged with each other.
It pinched farmers who complained, particularly the Ontario
Corn Producers Association. They asked for the right for farmers to import
pesticides for their own use. No wholesalers, no retailers, nobody else would
be allowed this privilege.
That worked. The farmers didn’t even need to import
pesticides often, or in any significant volume, to achieve much more
competitive prices.
Then about a dozen years ago, farmers imported a whack of
glyphosate under the own use program.
The pesticide companies complained. And they
got their way.
This time it was the GROU program. Since it took over, the
50 per cent price gap developed.
The old own-use program is still on the books, but the
pesticide companies blustered and bullied with threats to sabotage the GROU
program if farmers dared use own-use import permits.
So here we are with proposals to tinker with the GROU
program and make them part of the Pesticides Act. Hunter makes a number of
recommendations that ought to be included in the GROU program, all amounting to
increased pressure on the companies to help Canadian farmers remain
competitive.
I take a different view.
I think pesticides ought to be registered for use in both
countries. We don’t need our own expensive, bureaucratic Pest Management Review
Agency as long as the Americans are doing a good job of regulation.
And if they aren’t, we could spend our money and efforts
lobbying them to pull up their socks. After all, much of what they produce can
come into Canada anyway and we share the same air and lakes and many rivers.
With uniform regulation, there would be no need for any
import controls on pesticides. And that would also work for exports from Canada
to the U.S.
Would we lose research jobs and dollars? I doubt it. The
companies will still need to conduct research and I think Canadian researchers
are just as good as American ones, if not better.
And with open access to U.S. markets, I think we have some Canadian entrepreneurs who might develop some pretty good pesticide research, development and production facilities.
