The province’s ban on the sale and use of lawn and garden pesticides is a positive development for a number of parties, including the lawn-care industry.

Local industry members are among those most pleased to see the legislation take root. They say the industry has been waiting for the province to act, that it’s long overdue, and that it will allow the industry to meet the needs of its customers by finding other approaches and solutions.

It puts the industry on a level playing field by standardizing rules. More than 30 Ontario municipalities have pesticide restrictions or outright bans, but homeowners could still pick up these products at stores. That put the industry in an unfair position.

Many lawn-care companies were active in helping to draft the legislation, an indication they saw the writing on the wall and proactively moved to new realities. That’s a sound, strategic direction.

Many lawn-care companies have already begun to use products other than the banned pesticides, so the industry is already in transition.

The legislation also puts the province where it needs to be on broad issues like a pesticide ban, or smoking restrictions for that matter; in front of the issue creating a common set of rules for everyone to follow.

Without this approach a fragmented system of controls and restrictions pop up across the province, as municipalities enact their own bylaws, which often reflect local sensitivities.

This happened with smoking bylaws, and may have happened with bans on trans fat in food sold in schools, without the province’s recent move to remove trans fat from vending machine and cafeteria products.

The pesticide ban will be good for the environment. Pesticides may be intended for the lawn, but they end up in the water system as rain carries them into streams, rivers and lakes.

It’s reassuring to see the lawn-care industry take such a proactive and positive approach to this initiative to protect the environment.

JD