Two years after banning the sale and use of pesticides on its territory, the City of Montreal now becomes the first city in Canada to ban the use of the main dangerous pesticides on its golf courses. Starting with the 2025 season, the eight Montreal golf courses will have to comply with the Regulations on the sale and use of pesticides, from which they were until now exempt. This regulatory strengthening is made possible thanks to the close collaborative work between the City, its civil society partners and the targeted organizations in recent years.
Pesticides are considered one of the main causes of the decline of global biodiversity and are extremely harmful to human health. Despite these findings, we are seeing an increase in the use of these products in Quebec and elsewhere. As a metropolis, we must set an example by further limiting the use of pesticides throughout Montreal, including on its golf courses. It was important for us to assist golf course operators in this transition to pesticide-free practices by providing them with the appropriate support and resources. With this regulation, the City of Montreal is taking a strong action to continue to protect human health and biodiversity throughout its territory.
Marie-Andrée Mauger, Responsible for the environment and ecological transition on the executive committee of the City of Montreal
Amendment to the Regulation respecting the sale and use of pesticides
Over the past two years, the City has conducted tests at the Montreal Municipal Golf Course to find effective ways for golf operators to maintain their activities normally, while eliminating the use of the most toxic products. The results obtained were positive.
After consulting the operators of Montreal golf courses and their agronomists responsible for maintaining the greens, the Regional Directorate of Public Health (DRSP), the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ), and civil society, Montreal :
- Now subjects golf courses to conditions almost identical to those governing the practices of agricultural and horticultural operations. The use of the most toxic pesticides for health, the environment and biodiversity will therefore be prohibited. The regulation provides for two exceptions to the use of certain pesticides, limited in time and precise in their scope:
- The use of mecoprop and 2,4-D in one or other of their forms to control plantain, between April 15 and June 15;
- The use of chlorothalonil to control gray or pink snow mold between October 15 and December 1.
- Exempts, for safety reasons, operators of rail transport corridors in order to facilitate the maintenance of railway tracks and their rights-of-way, since tests of alternatives to banned pesticides have not proven conclusive.
- Revises the list of prohibited molecules that are included in the composition of pesticides in Schedule I of Regulation 21-041, namely chlorpyrifos and chlorthal dimethyl, because they are no longer approved by Health Canada. These ingredients are now banned in Canada due to their extreme toxicity. To learn more, see the list.
The Municipal Golf of Montreal is already successfully applying the terms and conditions provided for in the amended regulations.
Maintaining a lawn without pesticides
Having a healthy lawn, without pesticides, is possible, if you take the right actions to encourage its growth depending on the variety of grass: rake, seed, fertilize and mow the lawn at the right time to make it denser and keep her healthy. For more information, click here.
Montreal’s commitment to biodiversity
Remember that as part of COP 15, which was held in Montreal in December 2022, the City launched a call for commitment to protect biodiversity. It is in this sense that one of the targets for action of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework for Biodiversity, which was adopted at this summit, aims to halve the use of pesticides on a global scale. worldwide by 2030.
