Battle Brewing Over Proposed Pesticide Ban In Halifax, Canada

Halifax city staff has recommended a complete ban on lawn and garden chemical spraying in the municipality, starting March 31, 2001. Opponents of the ban are outraged and predict epic political and legal battles ahead if regional council proceeds with the ban.

"I can't believe what I'm reading here," council member Steve Streatch said of the proposed ban. "We've jumped very quickly into a realm where municipal government has no place being."

Streatch said Friday he is sympathetic to people who are ill because of chemical exposure, but he considers a ban a "blunt instrument" and will do everything he can to fight against and delay the bylaw.

Don McCarthy, owner of Braemar Pest Control, said the lawn-care industry will fight the ban all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada if that's what it takes.

"What's happened to our constitutional and democratic rights when one percent of the population can dictate to the other 99 percent?" McCarthy said. "I'd be shocked if this doesn't end up in court, and I'd be shocked if we don't win."

The ban proposal, signed by the city's chief administrative officer, says scientific evidence on the safety of pesticide exposure is extremely mixed but suggests council ban the products anyway.

"Staff does not have the expertise to provide advice as to which side of this issue is correct," the report says. "Although it can be said that sufficient evidence and conflict exists to justify a precautionary approach to the issue."

Helen Jones, a member of the lobby group Real Alternatives to Pesticides in the Environment, was thrilled with the news. "It's very heartening to see council move decisively to remove these chemical poisons from the community," she said.

The debate over residential pesticides in the city goes back more than two years. Council asked the province for permission to regulate lawn and garden spraying and received clearance to do so under the Municipal Government Act of April 1999.

Council will begin to debate the proposed bylaw April 25. The public will have a chance to argue for or against the ban at hearings to be held near the end of May.