|
Mayor Sam Katz and Members of City Council:
I am here on behalf of the Cancer Brigade who, as you well know, first
appeared at the Standing Policy Committee on Protection and Community Services
two years ago to demonstrate the linkage between pesticides and cancer and to
urge City Council, as a whole, to move towards a non-essential pesticide use
by-law. As you know, I was diagnosed
with non-Hodgkins lymphatic cancer 3 years ago and David Nickarcz was diagnosed
with testicular cancer. Both of these
cancers have a direct and indirect link to pesticides. I was in remission for 2 years, and my
cancer has returned once again. The
latest statistics claim that 44% of all men and 39% of all women will get some
form of cancer in their lifetime.
As a result of our intervention, two public meetings were held on May 29th
and 30th, 2007 with over 70 delegations (both pro and con) giving
presentations to the ad hoc committee on pesticide use. As a result of these hearings the Ad Hoc
Committee on Non-Essential Pesticide Use made the following observations:
The David Suzuki Foundation says that, after reviewing poison control
records across Canada it was found that “pesticides poison more than 6,000
Canadians every year and almost half of them are children younger than 6".
The Canadian Cancer Society suggests that there is a direct link between
pesticides and certain types of cancer. It is important to me that there is a recognition of the link between
cancers such as non-Hodgkins lymphoma and testicular cancer to the use of
pesticides, as well as a link between pesticide use and the 3% of Canadians who
suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity or (MCS).
Recently in McLean’s Magazine, a question was raised concerning which
province had the highest percentage of households using pesticides on their
lawns and gardens. Take a guess who
came out on top? Manitoba, where 44% of
households use pesticides on their lawns and gardens!
Last September, I was one of the only environmentalists who supported
City Council for taking “baby steps” in restricting the non-essential use of
pesticides. But as I said at that time,
the proof would be in the pudding - that is, in the actual drafting of the
by-law.
Unfortunately, now that the by-law has actually been drafted, we moved
one step forward last year and two steps backward today. I cannot possibly support the draft by-law
as it is presently written. It took 8
months to decide that the use of signage by commercial applicators to notify
consumers of usage should be a corrugated 8"x10" size! There is nothing stating what should be
written on the signage, such as warnings about the impact of chemicals being
used. More importantly, this by-law
will still not apply to residents who choose to use pesticides on their own property,
which I think will cause more harm to individuals and the environment.
The policy of allowing individuals who object to pesticide use to
request a buffer zone around their property, which I felt was a positive step
as it pertained to city as well as commercial companies, has been eliminated
from the by-law - never mind that these buffer zones would not apply to
individual property owners! They
substituted this part of this by-law that the City of Winnipeg would work with
the Province of Manitoba towards a province-wide controls on the use of
non-essential pesticides. While I
recognize that in the long run the provincial government needs to play a role
in creating a by-law province-wide, especially in regards to controlling “big
box” stores from stocking pesticides, however, by removing the buffer zones you
are weakening the by-law as it is presently constituted.
Environmentalists, as well as commercial applicators of pesticides agree
that the City needs to launch a public education campaign about the use of
pesticides. Having said this, I looked
at the budget for 2008 and found that a mere $10,000 has been allotted for this
purpose! Now, what will $10,000 get? One public meeting? This is a joke and indicative of the fact
that you aren’t really serious about this issue. A major public education program needs to be organized that goes
far beyond supporting a series of organic lawn care workshops run by the
Manitoba Eco-Network. We need to bring
in experts on this issue from around the world and hold conferences, seminars, public forums and workshops
throughout all of Winnipeg in order to try and engage hundreds of people on
this issue (much like former Mayor Glen Murray’s “New Deal” workshops which
attracted over 2,000 people) about the pros and cons of pesticides.
The purpose of any by-law is to achieve something. The intent of this by-law as far as I
understood, in the long run, is a total ban on all non-essential
pesticides. As it is written now, this
by-law is good public relations, but it will achieve absolutely nothing!
-30-
Nick Ternette is a
political and community activist, freelance writer and broadcaster.
|
