Saskatchewan, Alberta urge Ottawa to approve gopher poison following rejection

Sask. producers warn gophers will continue damaging crops after Health Canada upholds strychnine ban. Damian Smith reports.

The Alberta and Saskatchewan governments are pushing Ottawa to lift a ban on an effective rodent poison as farmers warn of an increase in damaged crops and injuries to livestock.

The provinces said the Pest Management Regulatory Agency had rejected their proposal to allow the emergency use of two per cent liquid strychnine to control swelling populations of Richardson’s ground squirrels, commonly known as gophers.

The agency had banned strychnine two years ago, arguing that it poses risks to other wildlife species that consume poisoned carcasses.

Don Connick, who farms in southwestern Saskatchewan, said he remembers seeing plenty of gopher mounds last summer protruding from his neighbour’s cropland.

“It looked like it had been shelled,” Connick said in a phone interview Tuesday from Gull Lake, 300 kilometres west of Regina.

Connick and other farmers say populations of gophers have grown significantly since the strychnine ban, resulting in more damaged crops and injured livestock that step into holes the rodents create.

“(Gophers) have reached epidemic proportions in lots of areas,” Connick said.

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Aware of the issue, both Alberta and Saskatchewan requested the agency reconsider its position on the poison, asking it to approve two per cent liquid strychnine in emergency situations.

The agency denied the provinces’ proposal this week.

James Thorsteinson, Saskatchewan’s legislative secretary to the agriculture minister, said in an interview that gopher damage amounted to millions of dollars in losses this year.

“Every region of the province has areas that have tens of thousands of gophers. It’s crazy,” he said.

Bill Huber, the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, said the rodents thrive in drier conditions, noting some areas of Saskatchewan have experienced nearly a decade of drought.

“They’ve basically just cleaned hilltops off in whole fields where there’s hundreds and hundreds of acres of land,” he said.

Alberta Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson said in a statement he’s disappointed by the decision.

“The downstream effect will also contribute to the ongoing food affordability and security crisis we are facing in Canada,” he said.

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• Saskatchewan-Alberta motion to use strychnine for pest control denied by Ottawa
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When the ban was implemented in 2024, the agency noted species at risk to strychnine use were the swift fox and burrowing owl. It also had concerns over whether producers were administering the poison properly and regularly monitoring their fields for dead gophers.

Health Canada, which oversees the agency, said in a statement its concerns still stand.

Health Canada says the ban continues to protect “non-target animals, including species at risk such as the swift fox and burrowing owl, from strychnine-related poisonings.”

While they can cause problems, ground squirrels are also considered a keystone species in the prairies, creating a delicate balance when it comes to finding a way to address the issue.

It said while it weighed issues brought up by the agriculture sector, environmental and health safety requirements took priority.

“The environmental risks of strychnine, including secondary poisoning of non-target animals and species at risk, could not be mitigated to acceptable levels,” it said.

Thorsteinson said Saskatchewan and Alberta had proposed to the agency that producers would make narrower applications of the poison and undergo mandatory training, arguing this would have mitigated concerns.

But Health Canada said the proposal did not include new or effective measures.

It said there are other pest control products available, though farmers and Thorsteinson say they aren’t as effective as strychnine.

With the ban staying in place, alternatives have been recommended by Health Canada, with zinc phosphide as the most common option. Other options include chlorophacinone, diphacinone and Aluminum Phosphide.

Alberta and Saskatchewan will continue to urge Ottawa to reconsider the decision, Thorsteinson said.

“We need to take a good economic look at this as well, not just a straight environmental (look),” he said.

Connick said he had been hopeful the agency would have accepted the provinces’ proposal.

He resorted to using other poisons or shooting gophers to control populations last year, he said.

“I am certainly not a big fan of putting out poisons like strychnine. I wish there was a viable alternative to it,” he said.

“I think we have to be cognizant that strychnine, when used as directed, is relatively safe.”

READ ALSO:

• Sask. municipalities group hopes province will reintroduce strychnine for gopher control
• Saskatchewan, Alberta don’t support federal proposal to ban use of strychnine for gophers

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 3, 2026.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press

With files from CTV News’ Damian Smith