Legislative committee calls for more glyphosate restrictions, Greens want full ban

New Brunswick needs to impose further restrictions on the spraying of glyphosate, and N.B. Power should phase out using herbicides altogether, says a legislative committee on climate change and environmental stewardship.

A committee report makes several recommendations, including increasing spraying setbacks by 500 metres from dwellings, which would bring the total setback to one kilometre.

The committee also recommends the government require spraying setbacks of 100 metres from protected areas, water and wetlands, and banning pesticide spraying outright in protected watersheds.

The report, signed by chair and Progressive Conservative MLA Bill Hogan, was tabled in the legislature this week.

On Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Mike Holland pointed to other recommendations, which ask officials to do more research and conduct a cost-benefit analysis on a full stoppage of glyphosate use.

"What we did was say, in the event that we stop, reduce, alter or change the way that we apply that product, what are the implications of that? Because there are financial implications," he said. "There are also environmental implications.

"The recommendations are meant to get the answers to those questions that we have posed."

The report comes after public hearings this year on pesticide and herbicide use in New Brunswick. The presentations to the committee and the resulting report focused almost exclusively on the controversial herbicide glyphosate. 

The herbicide is used by government agencies, agriculture and forestry sectors, and N.B. Power to control unwanted vegetation and increase yield. Some sectors spray it, while others apply it directly on unwanted plants.

Health Canada approves the use of the herbicide, but community and environmental concerns remain.

The report also asks the minister of natural resources and energy development to get N.B. Power to "immediately begin phasing out spraying of pesticides under transmission lines."

CBC News requested comment from N.B. Power but did not immediately receive a response.

Holland said the province has already started working with the utility on vegetation-management pilot projects. 

On Wednesday, Green Party Leader David Coon, who is a member of the committee, said the report "completely ignored" the concerns of First Nations representatives that glyphosate spraying infringes on Indigenous and treaty rights.