{"id":481225,"date":"2026-02-17T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481225\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:28:10","slug":"moe-smith-urge-ottawa-to-reverse-strychnine-ban-as-gophers-pose-serious-pest-threat-to-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481225\/","title":{"rendered":"Moe, Smith urge Ottawa to reverse strychnine ban as gophers pose \u2018serious pest threat\u2019 to farms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta have written to Prime Minister Mark Carney, urging him to reverse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ckom.com\/2026\/02\/03\/sask-farmers-wont-be-allowed-to-use-strychnine-to-control-gophers-in-2026-ag-ministry\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the federal government\u2019s decision to ban the use of strychnine to control gopher populations<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The two provinces applied for an emergency use request for the pesticide, but Health Canada\u2019s Pest Management Regulatory Agency denied that application last month.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<p>According to the letter from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Richardson\u2019s ground squirrels \u2013 commonly referred to as gophers \u2013 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ckom.com\/2025\/11\/08\/federal-strychnine-ban-review-may-help-control-gopher-plague-on-crops-sask-rural-leaders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have become a serious pest threat to agriculture<\/a>, damaging a wide variety of crops including cereals, oilseeds, pulses, forages, pasture and horticultural varieties, hay land, as well as infrastructure by chewing on fiber optic cables and puncturing small water and gas lines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The premiers said it was \u201cunreasonable\u201d for the emergency use application to be rejected, noting that it leaves producers facing another growing season without \u201ca critical pest control tool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While alternatives to strychnine exist, the premiers noted that other chemicals have narrower application windows and require several treatments, \u201ccreating unnecessary burdens for farmers and ranchers managing thousands of acres\u201d and potentially resulting in \u201csignificant\u201d losses for farmers across the two provinces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe suggestion of alternative products is appreciated, but in practice are simply ineffective \u2013 as evidenced by the current gopher population explosion throughout the prairies,\u201d Moe and Smith wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The premiers asked Carney to grant an immediate three-year exemption for the use of strychnine \u201cwhile other effective methods of control are researched and registered,\u201d in order to ensure farmers can access the pesticide in time for the start of the 2026 growing season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The premiers of Saskatchewan and Alberta have written to Prime Minister Mark Carney, urging him to reverse the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-481225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}