Skip to content

Pesticide control bylaw passes committee stage

City council has been “mandated to take action” on a new pesticide control bylaw, says Coun. Tom Mason. And that’s precisely what the Engineering and Works Committee did at Monday night’s committee meeting of council.
City council has been “mandated to take action” on a new pesticide control bylaw, says Coun. Tom Mason.

And that’s precisely what the Engineering and Works Committee did at Monday night’s committee meeting of council.

A bylaw controlling pesticide use in the Trout Lake watershed area was passed, with the likelihood of it going citywide in a year.

The matter had been referred back to committee at last week’s council meeting, prompting concern from North Bay Mayor Vic Fedeli that it might not resurface for months, or perhaps not at all during his term.

But Mason, who chairs the committee, prevented the bylaw from being lost in the referral abyss.

Must be objective
Barring unforeseen circumstances the bylaw will be passed next week at the regular council meeting.

It will include a public education program promoting awareness of the bylaw and alternatives to pesticide use; the preparation of a report to council evaluating the effectiveness of the bylaw and the status of the drinking water a year after the legislation comes into force; and the formation of a pesticides advisory committee, with the mandate of working towards a 100 percent city-wide pesticide control bylaw within a 12-month period, by Jan. 1, 2005.

Mason said Monday night that the results of a survey conducted by the city Nov. 17, 2003, showed 60 per cent of those surveyed believe pesticides pose some risk to the environment, and 53 per cent believe current use poses some risk to their health.

As well 77 per cent said the municipality was the best level of government to deal with pesticide use at the neighbourhood level.

“We have been mandated to take action,” Mason said.

The issue, Mason said, is complex.

“We must be objective and listen to all sides and balance the response based on all views and not simply of one or two who may shout the loudest,” Mason said.

“We also cannot ignore the views and concerns of our citizens.”

Mosquito control
The city also needs to evaluate its own in-house operating standard for pesticide use and “the health and financial impacts of these products.”

Most survey respondents said they would support the use of pesticides for mosquito control, if deemed necessary by the medical officer of health, Mason said, and 63 per cent supported the usage of larvicides for this purpose.

“What would we do if West Nile virus should strike next summer and we are legislated by the province to use larvicides? This must also be reviewed,” Mason said.

Full restriction
Committee vice chair Maureen Boldt said she was glad to see a one-year deadline set for citywide implementation of the new bylaw.

“We have a date, a target to go to a full restriction and I’m pleased to see we’ve made a lot of progress,” Boldt said.

Coun. Sarah Campbell, who’d been a member of the ad hoc pesticide committee that helped come up with the original bylaw, said public education would be the most important part of the current version.

“It’s important because enforcement of the bylaw is going to be very complicated and, quite frankly, it’s not even doable,” Campbell said.

“To say we can go around to everybody’s property to see what they’ve got in their watering cans is not feasible.”
____________________________________________________________

PHOTO Engineering and Works Committee chairman Tom Mason reads a statement about the new pesticide control bylaw.
Photo by Phil Novak