Campaign for Pesticide Reduction

Polls about Pesticide Bans, By-laws and Education Campaigns

City of Vancouver:
Burnaby and New Westminster registered the strongest support with 89.9% of respondents favouring
restrictions on the use of lawn and garden pesticides on private property. The City of Vancouver was pegged at 81.1%, followed by Surrey at 80.5% and the Tri-Cities at 81.4%. Support was lowest in  Richmond at 72.3%. The poll was conducted by the Mustel Group, which interviewed 500 people in Greater Vancouver between October 1st and 9th, 2003. Results are considered accurate within +/- 4.4
percentage points 95% of the time.

Province of Québec:
The July 2003 issue of L'Actualité published the results of a CROP (Centre de Recherche sur l'Opinion Publique) public opinion poll on page 15 which said that 87% of Quebecers support the new Pesticide Code's calling for a pesticide ban in three years on private property across Québec.

Province of Ontario:
On October 31, 2001, Oraclepoll Research Ltd. released an Ontario-wide poll which indicated that 82% of Ontario residents support municipal bylaws restricting the use of cosmetic pesticides on private residential property. Of the 27% who use chemical pesticides, 76% said they would very likely stop using them if they were provided with methods for creating a weed free lawn and garden.

City of Toronto:
Three public opinion polls indicated that between 70% and 80% of Toronto residents support a pesticide by-law.

City of Ottawa:
A staff report tabled with Ottawa City Council in December 2002 stated that "61.9% strongly or somewhat supported a by-law banning the use of pesticides on private lawns and gardens." Furthermore, a City of Ottawa opinion poll by Decima Research showed that Ottawa residents strongly or generally support (82%) the City of Ottawa's pesticide-free policies on its sports fields and green spaces (Decima, November 2001). Also, the city's public consultation, entitled Ottawa 20/20: Charting a Course, indicated significant positive support for banning the urban use of pesticides.

City of Montreal:
A poll (December 28, 2000) in Montreal showed that "a whopping 88.6% of respondents said they would willingly stop using pesticides in and around their homes."

Regional Municipality of Halifax:
A public opinion poll released on November 2, 2002, conducted by Corporate Research Associates found
that about 90% of those surveyed use alternative sustainable methods, rather than pesticides knowing that the pesticide by-law would be coming into full effect on April 1, 2003. A previous poll in Halifax (June 1999) on the same issue showed that 83% of citizens supported a by-law restricting the use of pesticides. Of this group, 45% stated they 'strongly supported' such action by City Council.

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The report prepared by The Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention and Cullbridge Marketing and Communications is titled "The Impact of By-Laws and Public Education Programs on Reducing the Cosmetic / Non-Essential, Residential Use of Pesticides: A Best Practices Review.

New Research Alert: Reducing Residential Pesticide Use
This best practice review studied nine communities in Canada, the United States and Europe that were leaders in reducing their pesticide use. Only those communities that had passed a by- law and  supported it with education or made a community agreement were successful in reducing the use of pesticides substantially (51-90%). Education and outreach programs were less effective alone. The report, published April 2004, highlights the most promising approaches used by the nine communities.