Coquitlam homeowners will soon have to tend to their lawns, plants and shrubs without spraying chemicals.
This week, city council unanimously voted to get staff to draft a bylaw that would ban pesticides from being used on residential properties. The bylaw is expected to be adopted this fall, just as council candidates gear up for the November civic race.
The move to make Coquitlam pesticide-free is being heralded by Elisabeth Baldazzi, co-founder of the Coquitlam Pesticide Awareness Coalition, which has lobbied the city for two years to enact a bylaw.
After Monday's decision, Baldazzi voiced her disappointment that council had taken so long to follow what dozens of other B.C. municipalities have already done on the use of pesticides.
"I don't think we would have gotten this far had it not been an election year," she said, "and that's a shame. They should have been more responsive to the community. They should have shown more leadership earlier."
Steve LaFond, owner of ATC Landscaping, which maintains properties in the Tri-Cities, also said the bylaw is "long overdue."
His Port Coquitlam-based company hasn't used chemicals for years. "People are okay with a few weeds," he said. "You have to do a little more manual labour: You use bark mulch. You tend more to the [flower] beds. The trees are a bit more work. You can't just use the easy fix."
But while the proposed bylaw applies to the use of pesticides, it doesn't prohibit them from being sold locally. The city plans to work "directly with local pesticide vendors towards voluntarily ceasing the sale" of the chemicals in the city, the proposed regulation reads.
Coun. Selina Robinson, who called for the anti-pesticide bylaw earlier this year before it was sent to the newly formed sustainability and environmental advisory committee for review, also urged council on Monday to write a letter to B.C. Environment Minister Terry Lake to ban pesticide sales province-wide. Her motion was unanimously approved.
Yesterday, a ministry spokesperson told The Tri-City News the government has struck a bi-partisan committee to look at the legal implications of banning pesticides in the province. Last year and in 2009, the ministry held a web-based public consultation, which yielded more than 8,000 responses.
"B.C. Premier Christy Clark has committed to exploring banning the unnecessary use of pesticides for the health and safety of our communities," the spokesperson wrote in an email on Tuesday. "Any new regulations will take into consideration the views of the public and stakeholders such as the forestry and agriculture industries. We also need to be mindful of the need to protect food security and prevent invasive weeds from harming the natural environment."
Meanwhile, in May, NDP Leader Adrian Dix tabled Bill M 203, Cosmetic Pesticide and Carcinogen Control Act, 2011, which is expected to be debated in the next Legislature session.
While Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart supports the planned bylaw, he said the city's hands are tied until the province steps up.
"This is a jurisdiction that belongs to the province because they have the tools to do it," he said. "They're the ones that can ban the sale of the product and make it so that we don't have to go to great lengths to enforce it."
