Mayor’s inner circle wants to reduce pesticide-free buffer zones
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2010 (5900 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Mayor Sam Katz’s inner circle has approved a plan to change the way the city controls nuisance mosquitoes.
City council’s executive policy committee voted unanimously this afternoon to ask the province to allow the city to reduce the size of pesticide-free buffer zones, the lead-up time before fogging may begin and the notification time before fogging may begin.
St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves said it appears mosquito numbers are spiking more quickly in recent years and the public wants to know the city can react quickly as well.
Pending council approval next week, the city will also ask the province for more money to phase out the larvicide dursban within two years.
Katz said that move is "two years early," but in fact the city has been putting off this change — which will cost an additional $5.4 million — for several years, according to the city’s own budget documents.
The report also recommends spending an additional $930,000 a year to reduce the time it takes to fog the entire city.
The city is also allowing the province to handle the tricky task of determining the precise size of buffer zones, which are currently 100 metres from registered properties.
Katz said the city must leave that decision up to the province because they are the licensing body for pesticides.
The city is also planning to require anyone who registers for buffer zones to provide proof of identification.
The report makes no mention of eliminating the use of malathion as a fogging agent, prompting criticism from anti-pesticide activists.
Activist Nick Ternette came out of his self-imposed "retirement" to condemn the EPC-approved plan as a "retrogressive move" that does nothing to reduce the city’s use of chemicals.
"No other city except Winnipeg uses malathion," says Ternette, who believes his two bouts of cancer were related to pesticide use.
"Cancer doesn’t happen because you spray for one year. It happens when you spray for 25 years. And we’ve been spraying for 40 years."
The city switched from DDT to malathion for mosquito control purposes in 1969.
Manitoba Green Party leader James Beddome also appeared before EPC to deride the plan.
"I could challenge any sitting councillor or MLA to stand in front of a fogging truck and get fogged," he said. "I don’t think I’d get any takers."
The mosquito-control plan faces council approval on July 21.
