Feds, province should ban pesticides, Coq. council says

Janis Warren - The Tri-City News Published: July 07, 2009 3:00 PM

Coquitlam council will ask the federal and provincial governments to ban pesticides — but it won't do it in the city's backyard. On Monday, in a unanimous vote, city council backed a motion by Coun. Lou Sekora to have the senior governments prohibit all pesticides and other chemicals deemed to be unsafe by federal government scientists. Coun. Fin Donnelly's addition to include chemicals "that pose any risk to human or environmental health" was also adopted as part of the motion. Mayor Richard Stewart, who endorsed Donnelly's request, later called the amendment "a little bit ridiculous" and "craftily worded" that encompassed too much. Sekora said he couldn't support Coun. Selina Robinson's motion in May for a city-wide pesticide ban as he felt the municipality couldn't police it. And having different bylaws in the Tri-Cities (Port Moody has a pesticide ban; PoCo does not) is "considered poor public policy," Coun. Linda Reimer argued.

Still, Robinson said the province allows municipalities to form such bans. She also said there are many bylaws the city can't enforce all the time like speeding, smoking and building codes. "The list goes on and on," she said. Donnelly also cited a letter sent to the city this week from the Canadian Cancer Society, indicating pesticide links to non-Hodgkin disease, leukemia and other cancers. The national society is calling for a pesticide ban on all private and public lands, he said. Anti-pesticide advocate Todd Major, a Metro Vancouver horticulturalist who runs a landscaping company, asked Coquitlam city council on Monday to impose a city-wide ban. Since he stopped using the chemicals, he said his business "has gotten better." "The health effects trump private rights," he said. Sekora's resolution will also be sent to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Union of BC Municipalities, the Lower Mainland Local Government Association and Metro Vancouver for endorsement. Meanwhile, Coquitlam-Maillardville NDP MLA Diane Thorne plans to introduce a private member's bill in the Legislature this fall to ban cosmetic pesticide use.