90% in Peterboro Want Province to Protect Bees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2015
Ninety per cent of Peterborough residents feel it’s important for the provincial government to protect pollinators, such as bees, and 85% are concerned about the threat  posed to bees by “neonic” pesticides, a new poll shows.

The poll comes as Ontario is proposing to reduce the use of neonic-treated corn and soy seed by 80% by 2017.

The survey also found 82% of Peterborough residents feel Ontario is “on the right track” with its proposed neonic-pesticide reductions.

“Doctors are delighted to see more than four-out-of-five Peterborough residents support the proposed neonic cuts,” says Gideon Forman, executive director of Physicians for the Environment. “One rarely sees this level of public consensus. But Peterborough residents know neonics threaten bees so the vast majority support these common-sense pesticide restrictions.”

The poll surveyed both city dwellers and rural residents of the provincial riding of Peterborough. It found that, when it comes to concern about neonics, urban and rural citizens are in agreement.

“The poll found about 84% of both rural and urban residents are concerned about the threat posed by neonics to bees,” says Beatrice Olivastri, CEO of Friends of the Earth (Canada). “So wherever the Agriculture Minister goes in his riding he’ll find the same thing: the overwhelming consensus is that neonics are a concern and need to be restricted.”

In 2014, a taskforce organized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature looked at some 800 scientific reports on neonic pesticides and concluded these chemicals “are a key factor in the decline of bees.”

The poll was conducted by Oraclepoll Research Limited and involved a 750-person survey of residents in the provincial riding of Peterborough. The margin of error is +/-3.6%, 19/20 times.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Gideon Forman, executive director, Physicians for the Environment (647) 703-5957 (cell);
(416) 306-2273 (land)

Beatrice Olivastri, CEO, Friends of the Earth (Canada) (613) 724-8690