The Manitoba government has introduced proposed amendments to strengthen its Noxious Weeds Act and better protect agricultural lands and natural areas in Manitoba from the spread of noxious and invasive weeds, Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Ron Kostyshyn announced.
“The proposed amendments would preserve the act’s original objective of protecting the province from noxious weeds while ensuring it also reflects today,” says Kostyshyn. “These changes would make it easier for the province to take quick action and deal with potential threats to agricultural and natural lands.”
Four major changes have been proposed including:
—a tiered approach for noxious weed classification that would allow flexibility in regional weed control programs and a simpler way to add or remove weeds from the provincial list;
—the ability to designate new invasive weeds for a period of one year, that would allow timely response to new weeds found in the province;
—adjusting provisions that would allow municipalities to recoup expenses from controlling noxious weeds on non-municipal land so they could be more easily adjusted to reflect actual costs; and
—a new, intermediary enforcement tool that would help ensure municipal governments take the necessary steps to deal with a noxious weeds, as required in the proposed legislation.
The minister noted the Noxious Weeds Act is one of the province’s oldest pieces of legislation and was first proclaimed in 1871. It requires land owners and occupants to prevent the growth, ripening and spread of weeds and weed seeds, with municipal weed inspectors responsible for enforcement.
