Glyphosate will disappear from the shelves of the City of Quebec from 2024. If the city council ratifies a regulation proposed by the administration of Bruno Marchand, the capital will become the third city in the province to ban the sale of this herbicide popularized by the firm Monsanto in the mid 1970s.
At the beginning of 2023, the City planned to control, using permits, the purchase of pesticides for domestic use. Several public consultations held during the winter led Quebec to tighten the screw even more by prohibiting, purely and simply, their sale.
“The first draft of the by-law went as far as we thought we could go,” says Marie-Josée Asselin, responsible for sustainable development and the environment at the municipal council. This forced citizens to turn to experts capable of offering them other alternatives. At the same time, it placed a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of traders. It required young hardware clerks to ask someone to show their permit. We preferred to listen to the population and simply ban the sale. »
Under this new by-law, the City of Quebec also intends to restrict the use of pesticides. From now on, the City will only authorize the use of biopesticides recognized by Health Canada on its territory. “The application of any other pesticide will be prohibited”, underlines the town hall in a press release – which immediately excludes the use of neonicotinoids, put in the dock for the significant decline of bees.
“We rely on a white list, explains Marie-Josée Asselin. All products that are not on the list are automatically prohibited in Quebec. »
A herbicide in the hot seat
Glyphosate is the main active substance in Roundup, an herbicide marketed in 1975 by Monsanto, an American company acquired in 2018 by the German giant Bayer.
Several concerns about its dangerousness to human and animal health have surfaced in recent years.
Since 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has considered glyphosate a “probable carcinogen”. However, Health Canada disagrees with this opinion and mentions, in a decision dated 2017, that the substance remains harmless to human health and that “it is unlikely that[elle] poses a risk of cancer.
The French and American courts have nevertheless condemned Bayer to pay sometimes staggering sums in damages in the context of lawsuits brought by farmers who accuse glyphosate of being the source of their cancer.
Other studies indicate that glyphosate also contributes to the decline of bees. The substance also destroys the plants that monarch butterflies, a North American species that has seen its population plummet in just a quarter of a century, depend on.
The example of Montreal
The City intends to adopt its by-law in the fall to see it come into force as early as 2024. If the city council ratifies it, Quebec will follow suit in Laval and Montreal, the first two cities to have banned glyphosate on their territory.
The City is aware that its population will still be able to obtain glyphosate online or in neighboring municipalities. The regulations not only prohibit its sale, but also its use. Any offender will face cumulative fines ranging from $500 to $4,000, explains Marie-Josée Asselin.
“There will be several inspectors capable of issuing statements of offence. It won’t just be a special squad, she adds. There will be a lot of eyes on traders. »
As for the risks of legal proceedings, Quebec is confident. “The City’s legal affairs department supported us in drafting this by-law,” points out Marie-Josée Asselin. It was necessary to see what legal issues the City was exposed to. Montreal was recently sued by a maintenance company and won. It is certain that when we have judgments like that, it sets a precedent and it gives us additional leverage to move forward. »