Volume Nine, Number Two    April 2004    www.columbiajournal.ca

New Westminster approves Pesticide By-law

CPP News Service

New Westminster City Council today passed a motion to prepare a by-law to restrict the use of cosmetic, non-essential pesticides. Councilors also indicated they will approach the Greater Vancouver Regional District Board about a region-wide regulation to limit potentially harmful pesticides.

The motion was passed unanimously after a delegation from the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation and the Master Gardeners Association urged Councilors to implement the by-law and a public information program about safe alternatives to pesticides.

New Westminster now becomes the latest GVRD municipality to pass a pesticide by-law. The City of Vancouver and Port Moody already have by-laws that become fully effective in 2006 following public education plans. Meanwhile councils in North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Richmond will soon deal with reports on pesticide use. And on Vancouver Island, a Capital Regional District committee is tasked with developing a model pesticide policy for all 13 CRD municipalities.

”We are witnessing a cross-Canada momentum of local communities protecting their neighborhoods and their environment,” says the SPEC press release. “It all started in 2001 after the Supreme Court upheld the right of the people of Hudson, Quebec to safeguard their homes by banning pesticides.”

At least 66 Canadian cities have now passed pesticide restriction by-laws. They include Toronto, Halifax and most of metro Montreal.