A Liberal MP says Ottawa was acting prudently when it removed liquid strychnine concentrate gopher bait from the market in 1994.
However, Lynn Myers said the government will consider a heavier concentration of the poison if field trials done in Alberta last year prove it is needed to control the exploding prairie gopher population.
“On behalf of Canadians, the government has taken a justifiably cautious approach to bringing back the liquid concentrate of strychnine, given its very hazardous nature,” said Myers, who was designated by the government to speak in a House of Commons debate on the gopher poison issue.
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“If the field trials now under way demonstrate a clear need in the future for the use of a liquid concentrate strychnine, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency will work with its provincial partners to determine how to make fresh bait products available.”
The debate was centred on a proposal from Alberta Canadian Alliance MP Leon Benoit calling for the government to compensate farmers for gopher damage suffered since the strong bait was banned. Before 1994, farmers could use the concentrate to mix their own poison.
He said the damage has been extensive and substitute products have not been effective.
“To get an idea of what this problem really entails, gophers cost farmers losses of tens of millions of dollars every year at a time when farmers cannot afford the losses,” Benoit said.
Myers conceded that the problem has become worse.
He said it is why the government granted a one-time emergency registration for parts of Alberta this year.
And it is why field tests are continuing to try to discover why the new pre-mixed products are not working and whether more concentrated products are required.
“There is not yet significant evidence to suggest or require that registrants change the bait of their ready-to-use products,” Myers said.
During the debate, opposition MPs asked the government to be more flexible when assessing new control methods such as the Gophinator, invented by a Saskatchewan farm family to shoot anhydrous ammonia down gopher holes and use it as a poison.
Federal regulators have said anhydrous cannot be used without extensive and expensive testing because it has not been assigned a pest control product number.
Saskatchewan New Democrat Dick Proctor said his party agrees with the government that the use of concentrated strychnine was an environmental hazard.
He said a better solution is to concentrate on finding alternative and safer ways to control gophers.
“In the final analysis, we have to be very careful,” Proctor said.
“We should be very cautious and very leery about the use of this product.”
