![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Proponents of strychnine in Alberta and Saskatchewan will continue to push for its use, following the federal government’s rejection<\/a> of a bid to unban the substance.<\/p>\n The request by the two provinces was aimed at having the controversial poison permitted for emergency use<\/a>, to deal with what Alberta Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson called “significant challenges” faced by farmers when it comes to managing Richardson’s ground squirrels, colloquially known as gophers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Strychnine, in two per cent liquid form, was the go-to gopher control solution on farms in the two provinces before the federal government began phasing out \u00a0its use<\/a> on Richardson’s ground squirrels\u00a0in 2020. It then\u00a0banned it outright<\/a>\u00a0in 2024 due to environmental risks posed by the poison.<\/p>\n In a statement, Sigurdson said “the loss of this effective control method is devastating for many across the agriculture sector.<\/p>\n “The annual risk to hay and native pastures exceeds $800 million, and the risk of this exploding [gopher] population is detrimental to farms and ranches across the country.”<\/p>\n Wade Nelson, a farmer near High River, Alta., is a strong proponent of strychnine use, saying he “had 170 acres of canola completely destroyed by gophers” three years ago.<\/p>\n “We’re hopefully coming out of a pretty terrible drought,” he said. “And that’s definitely given rise to a huge gopher population, the likes that I have never seen in my lifetime.”<\/p>\n LISTEN | Alberta farmer shares why he wants strychnine use permitted:<\/p>\n Calgary Eyeopener9:04Strychnine Ban<\/p>\n A bid to overturn a ban on a controversial poison used to control Richardson ground squirrels populations has been rejected. We hear from an Alberta farmer who would like to see Strychnine return.<\/p>\n Nelson thinks the recent spike in gopher numbers coincides with the ban on strychnine.<\/p>\n “It’s a really useful tool that farmers have used for a lot of years, and it’s very disappointing,” he said of the ban not being reversed.<\/p>\n Health Canada stands by decision<\/p>\n In a statement sent to CBC News, federal spokesperson Marie-Pier Burelle said Health Canada denied the strychnine use request by Alberta and Saskatchewan because, while concerns around crop losses and farm field damage were taken into consideration, “environmental and\u00a0health\u00a0safety requirements take priority.”<\/p>\n “This decision is consistent with the department\u2019s 2020 cancellation of strychnine, which was implemented to protect non-target animals, including species at risk such as the swift fox and burrowing owl, from strychnine-related poisonings,” she said.<\/p>\n The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan presented risk mitigation strategies to Health Canada, but Burelle said those proposals “did not include new or effective measures to address the risks identified in 2020, and therefore the emergency use request could not be approved.”<\/p>\n![\"Burrowing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770282494_72_default.jpg\")
A Health Canada assessment prior to the initial strychnine ban found that the highly-potent neurotoxin posed a risk to ‘non-target organisms’ like burrowing owls, which have been classified as an endangered species in Canada for more than two decades. (Amir Said\/CBC)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770282495_3_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n