Delays on Herbicide Restrictions Show Province Aims to Protect Industry, says Green MLA

Green Party MLA Megan Mitton says she remains unsatisfied with government explanations about the slow progress in implementing long-promised herbicide-spraying restrictions in New Brunswick.

The restrictions were mandated by Premier Susan Holt last year and stemmed from recommendations made by an all-party legislative committee nearly four years ago. But at committee hearings last week, Natural Resources officials revealed that several key measures from the November 2021 report remain incomplete. Among the most significant are setback rules, which are meant to establish buffer zones separating herbicide spraying from homes, waterways, and environmentally sensitive areas.

“The priority here hasn’t been the environment, hasn’t been health, hasn’t been to actually respond to what the MLAs directed them to do,” Mitton told the NB Media Co-op. “It’s been to maintain the status quo.”

She described the delays as “completely unacceptable, but not surprising,” noting that the Green Party has raised alarms about the lack of urgency for months. Back in June, the party had already criticized the Department of Environment for moving only partway toward the report’s recommendations. At that time, officials confirmed that setbacks from homes had been raised from 155 metres to 500 metres. The 2021 committee report, however, had called for a full one-kilometre buffer — a recommendation based on the mistaken assumption that 500 metres was already the rule.

Christie Ward, the assistant deputy environment minister, told the committee in June that “our permit condition has never been 500 metres, so it was starting from 155 metres…. the determination was to go from 155 to 500.” Instead of adopting the one-kilometre distance recommended by MLAs, the department chose to issue “notifications” to residents living within one kilometre of a spray zone.

That explanation did little to satisfy critics. Green Party Leader David Coon argued at the time that bureaucrats were effectively “rejecting” the will of elected officials, who had supported the committee’s report unanimously. On Tuesday, Natural Resources officials confirmed the policy has not changed and warned that greater setbacks could reduce timber yields — underscoring, Mitton said, the government’s bias toward protecting industry rather than the environment.

“It’s about protecting the interests of industry when it comes to the spraying of glyphosate and herbicides in our forests,” she said, pointing out that several Conservative Cabinet ministers in Blaine Higgs’ government — including Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland, Environment Minister Gary Crossman, and Agriculture Minister Margaret Johnson — had themselves supported the 2021 report when they sat on the committee.

Premier Holt has since tasked her Cabinet with carrying out those same recommendations, but the ongoing delays raise questions about whether ministers are pushing their departments to act.

The Department of Environment has defended its approach, describing pesticide use in New Brunswick as “tightly regulated” and “guided by science.” In a statement, officials highlighted recent changes such as increasing water setbacks for ground-based applications of glyphosate from 15 to 30 metres. They argued that provincial permits are already stricter than federal rules: Health Canada labels for glyphosate products sometimes require setbacks of just one metre from surface water.

But Mitton and other critics say those assurances miss the point. Most of the concerns relate to aerial spraying, not ground-based applications, and key recommendations — such as a ban on spraying in protected watersheds — remain unfulfilled. Natural Resources officials testified that no spraying has occurred in those watersheds for the past five years, but Mitton insisted that an explicit legal ban is necessary. “We can’t just accept that, oh, well, we’re not doing it now and just rely on goodwill,” she said.

The department did not respond to a request for further comment before publication.

Clean Air Act Hearings

The committee also held hearings last week on the Clean Air Act, which drew presenters ranging from Wolastoq Grand Chief Ron Tremblay to executives from J.D. Irving Ltd. Mitton told the NB Media Co-op that most participants called for stronger protections, except for those who stood to benefit financially from the current system.

“The majority — all of them except ones with a financial interest in keeping the status quo — all the other presenters, they were saying we need to reduce air pollution, that we need to understand that there’s no safe level of air pollution,” she said.

Daniel Saucier, a postdoctoral researcher at l’Université de Sherbrooke, presented findings linking pollutants such as sulphur dioxide to cases of ALS in New Brunswick. His research identified the province’s largest cluster of the disease near the industrial port of Belledune.

Mitton said the testimony underscores the urgency of legislation proposed by Green Leader David Coon, which would establish a legal right to a healthy environment. That bill, currently before committee, could enshrine rights to clean air, clean water, and broader environmental protections.

“The Clean Air Act currently doesn’t guarantee the right to clean air,” Mitton said. “Having the right to a healthy environment, as a standalone law, could encompass having the right to clean air, clean water, and a clean environment generally.”

She urged New Brunswickers to take part in upcoming public consultations, warning that the consequences of inaction are already being felt. “I’d encourage people to get engaged because right now there are New Brunswickers who are being made sick or who are dying because of air pollution that is being allowed.”

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).