By David F. Rooney
City Council has passed a bylaw that bans the non-essential use of cosmetic pesticides within municipal boundaries.
If this comes as a surprise, you can find out more at a Public Information Meeting to be held between 6:30 and 7:30 pm on May 26 at the Community Centre.
Environmental Sustainability Coordinator Penny Page Brittin will be on hand to explain who is affected by the new bylaw, which pesticides are prohibited by this ban and what environmentally friendly alternatives are available for weed control.
There is a schedule of 46 pesticides that are permitted (please click here to read the full list) under certain circumstances:
- the golf course sought and received a dispensation to use certain fungicides to kill snow mold, which plays havoc with greens and fairways;
- pesticides may be used to control or destroy health hazards;
- pesticides may be used in public and private swimming pools;
- they may be used to purify water; and
- inside buildings to control ants, termites and wasps.
Bylaw enforcement officers will, under this legislation, have the power to enter public property if they have reason to believe pesticides are being unlawfully used and they will have to power to issue a ticket to alleged offenders.
