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Ottawa Councillor Maria McRae says city council needs to consider a ban on chemical spraying along the Rideau waterway.
“If you look at how precious water is, not just in Ottawa, but globally … there needs to be an honest debate about the waterway,” Ms McRae said. “It’s definitely a discussion that has to happen.”
The councillor’s comments come in response to a call by Russell Foster, a municipal councillor in Drummond-North Elmsley Township, who wants all 12 municipalities bordering the Rideau system to ban spraying of chemical pesticides and herbicides near the shores of the historic waterway.
Mr. Russell plans to submit a resolution this fall to all municipal councils along the Rideau calling for the ban.
“I feel it’s something that needs to be done,” he said. “I’m only going to suggest that we don’t do it on the Rideau system close to the water.”
He proposes municipalities ban spraying chemicals within 20 metres of shore.
Ms. McRae said she hopes council can avoid the acrimony that dominated debate on a proposed blanket chemical pesticide ban in Ottawa that was rejected in 2003. But she thinks protecting the waterway may be a point of consensus.
“A majority believed at the time that we should not be contaminating water,” Ms. McRae said.
The councillor cautioned, though, that a ban would depend on the position of Parks Canada, the National Capital Commission and the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority.
Ron Holman, mayor of Rideau Lakes Township, recommends serious consideration of such a ban, but only after obtaining comment from conservation authorities and Ontario ministries on how it would affect farmers.
“This is a slightly different twist to it, having a specific distance from the water,” he says. “There have been other ones that have been a blanket disapproval of all use of pesticides across the board.”
The issue was brought to the attention of Drummond-North Elmsley council last week by a resident of Rideau Ferry, who saw a neighbour’s “perfect lawn” being sprayed with pesticide immediately adjacent to the water.
“There was a 30-per-cent chance of rain that day, so guess where the pesticide would have ended up if it had rained,” said John Kessel, a professional photographer whose studio is nearby.
The Supreme Court of Canada in 2001 upheld a general pesticide ban passed in Hudson, Que.
A ban on chemical pesticide use in Toronto was supported by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2005 over opposition from the pesticide industry, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. A ban on chemical pesticide spraying in Halifax came into effect in 2003.
Manuel Stevens of Parks Canada, which administers the Rideau Canal system, says the Rideau Heritage Network, of which he’s also a member, says the group hopes cottage properties along the waterway can be gradually returned to their original state without diminishing their owners’ enjoyment. “Our biggest push is simply for property owners not to urbanize their shorelines,” he says.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006