Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to get Ontario’s lawns and gardens off drugs.

He marked Earth Day Tuesday by announcing a provincewide ban on the sale and use of lawn and garden pesticides.

It will replace municipal restrictions in more than 30 Ontario municipalities with one single law, to take effect next spring.

The ban would apply to the so-called cosmetic use of pesticides – which include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides – now used on private lawns, fruit trees and gardens.

Orillia Coun. Don Evans greeted the announcement as “wonderful news.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Evans, who began pursuing a pesticide ban last year. “My only chagrin is that Orillia city council didn’t beat (McGuinty) to it.”

The city’s environmental advisory committee had recommended to a past council that the municipality reduce the private use of pesticides, but the proposal was rejected in favour of a public education program.

The provincial ban will ensure the Ontario government, and not municipalities, shoulders the responsibility for the coming change, said Evans.

“Not only is the pressure off council, but the pressure is off those of us who have been trying, with perhaps not as much energy as we should have, to persuade council and other municipalities to do the right thing,” he added.

Area resident Colleen Cooney in 1991 urged city council to eliminate pesticides from public parks, a policy that was adopted years later.

Banning their use on private property is an important step forward, she said. “I am really proud of the government,” Cooney said.

“It is wonderful news, and great for the children of this generation and future generations.

“You can have a beautiful lawn without (pesticides), you just have to get the information on how to do it,” she added.

Orillia council late last year banned pesticide use on properties neighbouring city wells in an effort to prevent contamination of the water.

The ban applies to homes within a 200-metre radius of the wells.

Lawn care companies are ready for the change, representatives say.

Jane Laing and her husband George own the Barrie Weed Man franchise. They’re thrilled to see the legislation finally coming.

“We’ve been working towards this for the past five years,” said Jane.

“It puts everyone on a level playing field.”

She pointed out that while municipal bans put restrictions on the lawn care professionals, they didn’t stop homeowners from picking up chemicals at the store down the road and applying it themselves.

Of the 11 area municipalities the local company services, only Collingwood has a pesticide ban in place, said Jane. Weed Man, along with many lawn care companies and the Ontario Landscape Alliance, had been working with the province in developing the ban.

The new legislation would allow for spraying in event of emergencies such as an outbreak of West Nile virus. The government will reveal a draft list of individual products and chemicals to be banned.

Jane hopes that Merit, a chemical used in killing grubs, will not be included in the ban. As far as she’s concerned, grubs are not a cosmetic issue. With a severe infestation, “you can lose your whole lawn,” she said.

“The traditional products used today are very effective,” she said, adding that with the ban here and a similar ban already in effect in Quebec, that more money will be made available to develop chemical-free alternatives.

There are already a number of chemical-free options available in the market, and the company already uses some of them, including a biological herbicide, a naturally occurring fungus that attacks weeds. They also use more natural products to fight pests.

“People don’t need to panic,” said Jane. They can have a healthy, green lawn without chemicals.

“We’re excited about the ban. It’s something we’ve been looking forward to.”

The province’s proposed measures would not apply to golf courses, farmland or managed forests.

- With files from Torstar News Service.