Alliance building wins change on pesticides

More than two years of alliance-building around pesticide reduction paid a major dividend last month as municipal representatives around the province voted overwhelmingly to call on the provincial government to pass legislation restricting cosmetic pesticides.

The 200 delegates to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Penticton voted Sept. 25 to endorse a motion submitted by Kamloops city council urging the provincial government to enact legislation to ban the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides province-wide. A similar resolution from Comox, calling on the province to give municipalities the authority to set bylaws on the use of pesticides on all private lands, also passed.

The vote on the resolutions capped months of campaigning by an alliance of Toxic Free Canada, the Canadian Cancer Society(CCS) and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), which have been staging forums around the province alerting British Columbians to the health and environmental effects of pesticides and encouraging municipal councils to enact bylaws curbing pesticide use.

Toxic Free Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society were also at the UBCM convention, holding coffee sessions with delegates and handing out a joint leaflet urging councillors to support resolutions in support of provincial pesticide legislation. The David Suzuki Foundation also took part in the campaign on the convention floor.

“We first raised the issue of toxic pesticides more than four years ago in our CancerSmart Consumer Guide and all three of our organizations — Toxic Free Canada, CCS and CAPE — have been working hard on the pesticide forums for the past two years,” said Toxic Free Canada executive director Mae Burrows. “So it's really gratifying to see the support at this convention and see the campaign move to the next level.”

CCS, CAPE and Toxic Free Canada were first together on a forum in Kamloops in 2006 called Chemical Trespass and Preventing Cancer: The Pesticide Connection that was organized by Thompson Rivers University Faculty Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Burrows, a Burnaby resident, also addressed Burnaby citycouncil last year in favour of a municipal pesticide bylaw. The council's resolution was one of the first to call on the province to enact legislation governing the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides.

At the UBCM convention both Kamloops mayor Terry Lake and Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan, as well as Burnaby councillor Dan Johnstone, spoke forcefully in favour of the pesticide resolution.

The Kamloops resolution, listed as B81 in the delegates' book, states:

“WHEREAS residents of the Province of British Columbia are increasingly requesting their local governments to ban the use of cosmetic pesticides within their boundaries in order to mitigate concerns that these pesticides present a threat to the environment, children, pets and personal health.

“As these bylaws are being implemented in some municipalities, it has been found that community bans have little effect on overall pesticide sales. This is in sharp contrast to the Province of Quebec which has seen a fifty percent drop in pesticide use since their legislated ban in 1994;

“AND WHEREAS the Community Charter does not give communities the legislative authority to ban the sale of pesticides, only to regulate their use:

“THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of British Columbia enact provincial legislation that will ban the sale and use of cosmetic pesticides province-wide.”

The Comox resolution, number B82, states:

“WHEREAS the application of pesticides contributes to the cumulative chemical load absor by the natural environment;

“AND WHEREAS pesticides cannot be necessarily confined to a single location, but move through the environment in the air, land and water and may have an impact on non-target organisms and plants;

“THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the provincial government be urged to control pesticide use by mandating sales and retail display restrictions across BC;

“AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the provincial government be urged to amend the Spheres of Concurrent Jurisdictions Environmental and Wildlife Regulation to allow local governments to regulate, prohibit and impose requirements in relation to the use of cosmetic pesticides on all private lands.”

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