Exemptions in Charlottetown's pesticide bylaw could be exterminated

CharlottetownCoun.Mike Duffy, chair of the environment and sustainability committee, presented a notice of motion to council Monday night todelete subsections of the city's cosmetic pesticides bylaw that deal with infestations.

Currently,if a person believes they have infestations of particular pests they can pay $50 for a city inspector to confirm the diagnosis of a professional lawn care company. Then the city can approve a licensed applicator to use a banned substance to get rid of the infestation. The amendment would delete those exemptions.

"So everybody would be able to use only the 41 products that are the approved products." said Duffy.

The change came as a result of a request from Coun.Bob Doiron, who wanted the $50 fee that was required for inspections removed. He thought it was unfair, and called it a tax grab.

• City's pesticide fee a 'tax grab,' says Charlottetown councillor

Doiron had brought the issue to counciland it was sent back to the committee, which returned with the current solution.Duffy said getting rid of the exemptions is fair to all taxpayers.

"To get rid of the $50 fee for inspection, and if inspections continued the $50 fee, it would suggest, would be picked up by all taxpayers. But 80 per centof the tax payers want the protection of the bylaw.," Duffy said.

"It didn't make very much sense to the environmental committee to be asking 80 per centof the people in the city of Charlottetown, who want the protection of the bylaw, to participate in paying for an expense that's brought about by people who want to circumvent the bylaw."

Doirondisagrees

But that doesn't sit well with Doiron.

He said he himself has had to pay a lot to replace his lawn after a chinch bug infestation, and doesn't believe getting rid of exemptions is fair.

"That's very upsetting to me," he said

"I tried my best. These things that are accepted, they don't work. There's no way that they can work. You know if there was something organic, if you gave me oatmeal and said spread it on and that would kill the bugs, I'm all for that. But you haven't proven to me where there's something that will kill these bugs that are infested in the lawn."

Doiron said many residents in his area are concerned about the bylaw.

"I was looking to eliminate the $50 fee," said Doiron.

"Now the geniusof the committee come back and say to us, 'You know we're going to eliminate your fee, but we're going to eliminate the ability to spray for bugs.' So now everybody's lawn that's infested, well you know, I don't know, go phone a landscaping company and put in a new lawn for $6,000. I don't think that's leadership."

Doiron also put forward a motion to send the bylaw on to the Federation of P.E.I. Municipalities and suggest they put together a universal bylaw for the whole province, that motion was defeated 6-2 with only Doiron and Coun.Mitchell Tweel in favour.

Duffy's motion to amend the bylaw will be debated and have first and second reading at the February council meeting.

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