Industry/Golfers Need to Voice Their Opinions

Today’s subject reminds me of the rising cost of fuel this past summer, when the price per litre was skyrocketing towards $1.50, before falling back to more reasonable levels in the fall.

The problem is that the more reasonable price was a relative relief to shell-shocked consumers after the beatings their wallets took in the summer. All of a sudden, there was a new definition for normal, even when analysts were saying the price of gas should even be lower.

There was also relief in June when Bill 64 that bans the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes in Ontario was passed. The bill allows golf courses to continue to use pesticides if they comply with new, stricter conditions. What those conditions are defines the new normal for golf courses.

The Ontario Allied Golf Associations has been working with the Ministry of the Environment on those regulations, which have now been posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights website, http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/. The posting number is 010-5080.

The proposed regulations include mandatory Integrated Pest Management (IPM), something the golf industry has promoting for years anyway, but typical government over-regulation takes over after that, including an annual pesticide usage report from each golf course.

That report will have to include the quantity of all active ingredients applied each year, how much the quantities differ from the previous year and why and how IPM minimized pesticide use in the current year and how it will reduce use the following year.

A map of the golf course showing where pesticides were applied will also need to be submitted with the report to the IPM Council for posting on a public website.

That’s the new normal, in which a superintendent is drawn away from his or her normal duties to do the extra work required for the report. For the most part, the OAGA has gone along with it, but it doesn’t end there.

What the OAGA does have its back up about is the requirement for golf courses, in a tough economy, to advertise and send out invitations to all occupants within 100 metres of a golf facility for an annual meeting to discuss the pesticide usage report.

Public access to the property to read the report is also mandatory.

This is disguised as transparency on the pesticide issue, but what it could and will likely do is stir up a hornet’s nest on a topic that has been ultra-sensitive for years, with detractors basing arguments more on emotion than research into the subject.

With the golf course already putting its usage report into the public domain by posting it on a website,
it’s unclear what will be accomplished by going to the expense of hosting and advertising this annual meeting, where a whole lot of finger-point is likely to take place.

Comments must be submitted by Dec. 22. Both the golf industry and the public are being encouraged by the OAGA to submit their opinions at the EBR posting mentioned above, or by faxing Robert Bilyea, senior policy advisor for the Ministry of the Environment, at (416) 314-2976.

For more information or to discuss this further, contact the OAGA’s Teri Yamada at (416) 919-3832, Ken Cousineau of the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association at (905) 602-8873, Jarrod Barakett of the Ontario Golf Superintendents Association at (519) 650-5310 or Vince Kishimoto of the National Golf Course Owners Association, (905) 826-6790.

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