2.2 Ontario Pesticides Act and O. Reg. 63/09

Ontario Pesticides Act and O. Reg. 63/09

Quick Answer: In Ontario, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) regulates the sale, storage, use, transportation, and disposal of pesticides under the Pesticides Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.11, and Ontario Regulation 63/09. The Act and regulation create licences, permits, the cosmetic ban framework, and operational rules that sit on top of federal registration and the product label.

If PMRA decides which products may exist in Canada, Ontario decides how those products move through provincial commerce and the environment. Core exam candidates must be able to name the provincial statute and regulation, describe MECP’s role, and explain that requirements scale with what you are doing and which class of pesticide is involved.

The two key legal instruments

Pesticides Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.11

The Pesticides Act is the primary provincial statute. It establishes the legal authority for Ontario’s pesticide program, including:

• Definitions central to enforcement (including the legal meaning of pesticide—expanded in section 2.4).
• Prohibitions on unauthorized sale, use, and related activities.
• The cosmetic pesticides ban framework in section 7.1 and related provisions.
• Licensing and permitting powers.
• Offences, director powers, and enforcement tools.

The Act was significantly shaped by the Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act, 2008, which embedded non-essential (cosmetic) use restrictions into the Pesticides Act. The 2020 amendments then modernized classification and related operational rules while maintaining the cosmetic ban in substance.

Ontario Regulation 63/09

O. Reg. 63/09 is the detailed regulation made under the Act. Where the Act sets the high-level duties and prohibitions, the regulation fills in the operational machinery:

• Automatic classification of pesticides from federal designations (section 2).
• Licence categories, exemptions, technicians/trainees, and supervision rules.
• Permit requirements for certain high-risk uses (for example, some aerial Class B applications, certain fumigations, water-related uses).
• Cosmetic ban exceptions, Allowable List criteria, and related conditions.
• Vendor licence types, display and controlled-sales rules, and storage requirements.
• Notice/signage rules for land exterminations and related record-keeping expectations.

When exam materials say “the Regulation,” they mean O. Reg. 63/09 unless another regulation is named. Always remember the hierarchy: if guidance materials conflict with the Act or regulation, the legal text governs.

What MECP regulates

Ontario’s Guide to Pesticide Classes states the provincial responsibility clearly: Ontario regulates sale, use, storage, transportation, and disposal of pesticides, including issuing licences and permits, to protect human health and the environment.

MECP is not the body that registers active ingredients for Canada. If a product fails federal registration, Ontario licensing cannot “approve” it into existence. Conversely, if a product is federally registered, MECP still controls who may sell or apply it and whether a particular land use is cosmetic and banned.

Licensing, education, and permits: requirements depend on class and activity

A core exam theme is that one size does not fit all. Education, certification, licensing, and permits turn on two questions:

1. What activity are you performing—selling, applying for hire, operating an extermination business, farming your own operation, treating water, applying by air, fumigating, selling treated seed?
2. What class of pesticide is involved—A, B, C, D, or E?

Education and certification

Most training and certification for Ontario pesticide credentials is delivered through the University of Guelph, Ridgetown Campus (Ontario Pesticide Education Program / OPT&C pathway for exterminators). Certification is typically renewable on a five-year cycle for many credentials. Examples of education tracks include:

• Exterminator Core and category training (this exam’s pathway).
• Vendor certification for general vendor outlet representatives.
• Grower Pesticide Safety Course for certified farmers (separate from the exterminator track).
• Technician basic pesticide safety training.
• IPM training related to Class E neonicotinoid-treated corn and soybean seed.

Passing a course exam is often a prerequisite to applying for an MECP licence; the certificate alone is not always the licence.

Licences

Ontario organizes commercial control around licence families (detailed further in later chapters and section 2.4):

• Vendor licences — authority to sell/transfer certain pesticides.
• Exterminator licences — authority to perform exterminations in specific categories (structural, land, water families).
• Operator licences — authority to operate an extermination business (with age and insurance conditions among other requirements).

Unless an exemption applies, a person who performs an extermination needs the appropriate exterminator’s licence. Homeowners using eligible Class D products on their own property, certain supervised technicians/trainees, and certified farmers using certain products on agricultural operations are classic exemption contexts—always conditional on class and circumstances.

Permits

Permits are use-specific authorizations layered on top of licences for higher-risk scenarios. After the 2020 realignment, examples emphasized in Ontario guidance include:

• A permit for aerial application of Class B pesticides (with noted exceptions such as certain Btk uses).
• Structural permits for fumigant gas fumigations in buildings, vehicles, and structures.
• Permit requirements connected to certain water exterminations and other prescribed high-risk activities.

Do not confuse permits with product registration or with vendor licences. A permit authorizes a particular application situation; it does not replace federal registration or the need for the correct personal/business licence.

Cosmetic pesticides ban framework (provincial layer)

Ontario’s cosmetic pesticides ban is a land-use rule. In plain terms, the Act prohibits use of active ingredients in, on, or over land for non-essential (cosmetic) purposes unless:

• The active ingredient is on the List of Active Ingredients Authorized for Cosmetic Uses (Allowable List), or
• A statutory/regulatory exception applies (agriculture, forestry, public health or safety, golf courses under prescribed conditions, and other prescribed uses such as certain specialty turf, arboriculture, structural-integral uses, natural resource management, and more).

Important boundaries for Core study:

• The ban applies to use in, on, or over land. It does not apply the same way to use in water or inside buildings.
• The ban applies to homeowners and licensed exterminators alike for cosmetic purposes—licensure does not authorize cosmetic use of non-Allowable active ingredients.
• Federal labels may still list lawn-weed uses that Ontario treats as cosmetic and prohibited unless the active ingredients are on the Allowable List.

Sale rules reinforce the ban: some Class D products with only banned cosmetic uses may not be sold in Ontario at all; other multi-use products are controlled sales pesticides that require licensed vendors and customer handouts.

Storage, display, and related operational rules

O. Reg. 63/09 sets storage and display requirements that intensify with product risk and licence type. High-level patterns:

• Do not store pesticides so they are likely to contaminate food or drink intended for humans or animals.
• Certain products sold only by licensed vendors must be displayed so the public cannot freely access them (locked cabinet / staffed counter model).
• For specified stored products, storage areas must be clean and orderly, display Sign G, post emergency telephone numbers, and—for licensed vendors in prescribed cases—provide annual written notice to the fire department.

These rules matter even when the product is federally registered and correctly classified. A legal product can still be stored or displayed illegally.

How the federal and provincial pieces fit together

Use this sequence when analyzing any Ontario pesticide scenario:

1. Is the product federally registered (or under a true exemption)? If not, stop—sale/use is generally illegal.
2. What is the federal class / Ontario letter class? That drives who may sell and many use rules.
3. What does the label allow? Rate, site, pest, PPE, restrictions.
4. Does Ontario’s cosmetic ban allow this land use? Allowable List or exception?
5. Does the person/business hold the correct licence, exemption, and any required permit?
6. Are storage, transport, disposal, notice, and spill duties being met?

Skipping any step is a common real-world compliance failure and a common exam trap.

Practical example

A landscape company wants to treat dandelions on a residential lawn with a Class C herbicide that is not on the Allowable List. Even if the federal label lists lawn weeds, Ontario’s cosmetic ban treats that use as non-essential. Holding an exterminator licence does not create a free exception for ordinary lawn cosmetics. The company must either use only Allowable List active ingredients for that cosmetic purpose or establish a true exception (which ordinary residential dandelion control is not).

By contrast, the same company treating wasps under a health-and-safety exception, or performing agriculture-related work under the agricultural exception, operates in a different legal lane—still bound by label, licence category, and regulation conditions.

Exam focus points

• Name the statute (Pesticides Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.11) and regulation (O. Reg. 63/09).
• Name the provincial ministry (MECP).
• List the five provincial control themes: sale, use, storage, transportation, disposal.
• Explain that class + activity determine education/licence/permit needs.
• Recall that the cosmetic ban is a provincial land-use rule layered on top of federal registration.

Section 2.3 converts the federal designations into Ontario Classes A–E; section 2.4 turns the Act’s definitions into the practical “who needs a licence” map.