Tignish considers ban on cosmetic pesticides

Tignish's mayor wants to see a ban on cosmetic pesticide spraying in the small western P.E.I. community.

• Charlottetown pesticide bylaw faces amendment
• 'What's the point?': Charlottetown resident concerned about pesticide ban exemptions

Allan McInnis brought up the idea of a ban at a recent council meeting, after an incident last month in which he said chemicals were sprayed on the community's ball field on a windy day with little notice to residents, who were upset.

Why it is an issue is beyond me as the mayor has yet to reach out to us directly to discuss the matter. Nora Dorgan

"We were only notified at the community office an hour before the spraying happened," said McInnis. "We put it on Facebook to try and notify as many people and residents as we could in the surrounding area it was being done."

The community had agreed earlier in the year that the Western Minor Ball Associationcould spray the fields.

"But they had to do their due diligence, or whoever they hired had to do their due diligence," but that didn't happen, McInnis said, adding he isn't sure if any pesticide regulations were broken.

The ball association hired a provincially-licensed contractor to apply the spray, it said in an email to CBCNews.

"Why it is an issue is beyond me as the mayor has yet to reach out to us directly to discuss the matter," saidNora Dorganon behalf of the association.

No complaints about agricultural spraying

Council is now considering drafting a bylaw for a ban that would come into effect next spring, and is researching similar bylaws in other Island communities.

McInnis isn't interested in banning agricultural spraying in Tignish farmers have followed rules around notifying residents and spraying when conditions are not windy, he said, and no one has ever complained.

Residents he's spoken with are behind the idea of a ban, McInnis said.

"If the majority of the constituents in Tignish wants a ban on cosmetic pesticides, then that's what the constituents of Tignish will get," McInnis said.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS|We're the millers: Islanders grinding flour for sale
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS|You Are Not Alone project reaches out to children after loss