Delays on herbicide reforms shows government priority to 'protect the interests of industry': Mitton

Green Party MLA Megan Mitton says she isn't satisfied with answers from government officials about delays in the implementation of herbicide-spraying restrictions.

Those restrictions were mandated by Premier Susan Holt last year and were recommended by an all-party legislative committee about four years ago. But at committee hearings last week, Natural Resources officials revealed that several recommendations from the November 2021 report — notably those dealing with "setbacks" or buffers meant to separate herbicide spraying from homes, bodies of water, and protected natural areas — remained incomplete.

"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 said in an interview with the NB Media Co-op. "It's been to maintain the status quo."

The Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Stewardship also held hearings last week on the Clean Air Act, with presenters ranging from Wolastoq Grand Chief Ron Tremblay to corporate executives with J.D. Irving Ltd.

The NB Media Co-op asked Mitton for her takeaways from the hearings.

"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," Mitton said.

Daniel Saucier, a postdoctoral fellow at l'Université de Sherbrooke, told the committee about his research in New Brunswick showing a link between pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and the neurodegenerative disease ALS. Researchers identified the biggest cluster in Bathurst, near the industrial port of Belledune.

Mitton noted that Green Leader David Coon has brought forward legislation that would create a right to a healthy environment. That bill goes to committee this week.

She called on residents to get involved in public sessions and to submit comments to the government as the review continues. "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."

Full story on our online publication, nbmediacoop.org.

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).