Friday, June 06, 2008

City's refusal to ban pesticides just delays the inevitable

In the category of man bites dog in light of the near hysteria over lawn pesticide use that’s infected Canada, the council of Parry Sound, Ontario, turned down a proposal to ban the use of pesticides. The Parry Sound mayor cast the deciding vote.

It seems that skunks and other critters have been tearing up the city’s cemetery looking for grubs, and the city director of operations wants to knock out the grubs with an insecticide. To appease one particularly persistent pesticide critic, who was quoted in the local Beacon Star News as saying, “:I guess we have to control every aspect of our environment and make it as pristine as possible,” (Hey amigo, it’s a cemetery, so lighten up), the city apparently has agreed to try nematodes to control grubs at the town beach.

I don’t know what the rush is to enact a pesticide ban in Parry Sound or any other city or village in Ontario anyway. What’s the point? It's all but certain that the entire province, including Parry Sound, will have a ban on the so-called “cosmetic use” of pesticides on lawns in 2009.

As a point of reference, Parry Sound is a delightful city of about 15,000 people on beautiful Georgian Bay a 2-hour drive north of Toronto, Ontario.

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