Ontario Pesticide Legislation, Certification and Regulatory Responsibilities
Ontario regulates pesticides through two layers that candidates constantly mix up. Federally, the Pest Control Products Act (administered by Health Canada's PMRA) decides whether a product may be sold in Canada at all: it registers the product, assigns a PCP registration number, approves the label, and sets maximum residue limits. Provincially, the Pesticides Act and O. Reg. 63/09 govern who may buy, sell, use, store, transport and dispose of that product in Ontario. A product needs both: a federal registration and a provincial classification.
O. Reg. 63/09 sorts registered pesticides into numbered classes that determine whether a product is available to homeowners, restricted to licensed or commercial users, or limited to manufacturing, research or other special uses. The same regulation sets the licensing scheme: a Pesticide Vendor Certificate to sell, a Pesticide Exterminator Licence for a business that applies pesticides for hire, and a Pesticide Applicator Certificate for the individual who applies (categories include agricultural, forestry, industrial vegetation, landscape, structural, fumigation, aerial and others). Ontario's cosmetic-pesticide prohibition also lives here: using a pesticide on lawns, gardens, driveways and similar outdoor surfaces for purely aesthetic reasons is banned, with defined exceptions (health and safety, agriculture, forestry, golf courses under conditions, and ministry permits).
Traps: assuming a federally "domestic" class product can be used freely - the provincial class and the label decide; assuming an applicator certificate lets a business advertise pest control (it doesn't - the business needs an exterminator licence); forgetting the label is the legal document, so any use inconsistent with it is an offence even if it works.
Worked example: a technician holds an Agricultural applicator certificate and the company holds an exterminator licence. Asked to spray weeds along a client's fence line, the correct answer is that the certificate category must match the work - a Landscape or Industrial Vegetation category is required.