Originally published on the CCIPR Facebook Group, October 2, 2026 In Part 1, I traced some of the shared history of weed regulation in Alberta and Saskatchewan. This post looks at how Alberta regulates invasive plants today. Alberta: two tiers of regulated weeds Alberta’s Weed Control Act (SA 2008, c W-5.1) allows the Minister of READ MORE
Category: general
Alberta and Saskatchewan: Invasive Plant Regulatory Update, Part 1: Shared Roots
Originally published on the CCIPR Facebook group, October 2, 2026 From Manitoba, we move on to the next two Prairie provinces to see how they regulate invasive plants. Together, Alberta and Saskatchewan account for more than 70% of Canada’s total farm area: 32.0% and 39.2% respectively in the 2021 Census of Agriculture (Statistics Canada, Canadian READ MORE
MANITOBA’S INVASIVE PLANT REGULATIONS
Originally published September 23, 2026 on the CCIPR Facebook group As we continue this series of updates on regulatory progress across Canada, we visit Manitoba, home to the prairie crocus to the south and polar bears to the north. Manitoba has a long history of regulating plants considered injurious to agriculture. In the first session READ MORE
But I Can Paint With Its Berries
Invasive species: can reframing the problem become an excuse for inaction? Of late, I have seen posts on social media and in the news casting invasive species as victims of human displacement, or describing their usefulness and suggesting we better recognize their value along with the harm they cause. This reframing is, in part, a READ MORE
Fatal Attraction
Fatal attraction: an intense draw to something that ultimately leads to disaster, destruction, or the end of a relationship. I marvel at the ingenuity of the plant world. Rooted in place, plants can’t go looking for food, seek a mate, or flee from herbivores. Instead, they have evolved extraordinary ways of getting other organisms to READ MORE
A WHIRLWIND TOUR OF CANADA’S INVASIVE PLANT PROBLEM
I had quite an experience yesterday August 24, 2026. Following Mitchell Fox’s CBC article, Invasive plants are available across Canada. Is federal regulation possible?, I was invited to do a CBC Radio syndication interview. Not one to shy away from a new experience, I said sure. What did that mean? Well, yesterday I spent four hours, READ MORE
RISCC Symposium March 25-26, 2026
Invasive Plants Are Still Being Sold. We Can Fix This. I attended sessions from the Northeast Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change (RISCC) Symposium, and one message came through clearly: We are not lacking knowledge. We are lacking alignment between what we know and what we do. Across North America, invasive species are accelerating under READ MORE
Ontario Invasive Species Strategy
Ontario’s draft Invasive Species Strategic Plan is open for comment until February 23, 2026: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/025-1334 It commits to “addressing high-risk invasive species and pathways,” but the horticultural/nursery trade is not treated as a priority pathway with clear actions or measurable outcomes. This is a major gap, because horticulture is the primary route by which invasive plants are introduced and spread. READ MORE
Cathy Kavassalis reflects on the Growing Solutions Conference
Dec. 11-12, 2025 (reposted from FB) I think a great deal about invasive plants and the horticultural trade, but I’m very aware that most people do not. The general public is unlikely to ever hear the sobering message delivered by Dr. Kathy Dunster at the start of this week’s Growing Solutions Conference: “If horticulture continues READ MORE
Meeting with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)
The CFIA is responsible for the regulation of invasive plants at the national level. We believe that the CFIA is failing to protect Canada from the threat posed by invasive ornamental plants and made our case in our recently released White Paper. We had asked the CFIA for input on the paper before we released READ MORE