Question: When is a Prairie irrigation canal more than that?
Answer: When the federal fisheries department declares it a fishery, subject to the fisheries act.
This debate over definition is at the centre of a dispute between federal government departments that illustrates the complicated nature of pesticide regulations in Canada.
At issue is use of herbicides that contain the active ingredient acro-lein, applied by farmers to control weeds in their irrigation canals in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta.
However, it also kills fish in the canals.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
The department of fisheries and oceans says that makes them subject to the fisheries act, which would outlaw use of acrolein as a hazard to fish.
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency considers the herbicide an effective weed control method, in use since 1971, and insists irrigation canals are part of the agricultural sector, subject to the pest control products act.
Alberta’s environmental protection officials have been trying to discover Ottawa’s official position so they can decide whether to license the product or not.
“In 1998, the PMRA and fisheries and oceans responded individually, each reiterating its previous position,” federal environment commissioner Brian Emmett told Parliament in a recent report. “The issue remains unresolved and the use of acrolein continues.”
Take a stand
He urged the federal government to quickly develop a “unified position” and cited the case as an example of federal environmental confusion.
Last week, members of the House of Commons environment committee grilled PMRA executive director Claire Franklin about the issue.
How could there be this confusion and why is PMRA approving a herbicide known to kill fish, several asked.
Franklin said it is largely a disagreement over how to define an irrigation canal. Is it a fish habitat or part of the agricultural infrastructure?
Whichever definition is used changes the law and regulations that apply.
“The issue is a little more complicated than it might appear at first glance,” she told MPs.
Quebec Liberal and former pro-vincial environment minister Clifford Lincoln said he would be nervous eating food from land irrigated with water containing a chemical lethal to fish.
“If it kills fish, is it safe?” he asked.
Meanwhile, a memorandum of understanding on co-operation has been negotiated between PMRA and the fisheries department, but it remains unsigned because they cannot co-operate on the canal issue.
