Axing the fee

Charlottetown council moves towards eliminating fee for pesticide inspections, and inspections themselves

City council in Charlottetown is moving to axe the $50 fee residents pay to have their lawns inspected for infestations.

A notion of motion was presented at Monday’s council meeting by Deputy Mayor Mike Duffy. First and second reading is expected to take place at February’s meeting, while third reading would go in March.

But the $50 inspection fee isn’t all that could be axed. Duffy also wants to get rid of lawn inspections, period.

“It didn’t make much sense to the environmental committee to be asking 80 per cent of the people in Charlottetown who want the protection of the bylaw to participate in paying an expense by people that want to circumvent the law,’’ Duffy said following council’s regular public monthly meeting.

“We’re suggesting to council that we eliminate the $50 fee for inspection and we would eliminate the inspections so everybody would be able to use only the 41 (already approved) products in the city.’’

And, there would be no exemptions to the bylaw so residents who claim they have an infestation can’t have a product not on the list of 41 approved products sprayed on their lawns.

Coun. Bob Doiron, who has been very vocal over the past few months in his opposition to the $50 fee, said council is swinging too far in the other direction.

Monday night, he tried to introduce a resolution calling on the city to send the pesticide issue to the Federation of P.E.I. Municipalities to have them come up with a plan for all 72 Island municipalities.

“Instead of us taking our bylaw and just dissecting it on every whim, let’s just head it back to the Federation of Municipalities (which) can collaboratively work with 72 municipalities, work with the province who have scientists who could look at what the standard for a bylaw for all of P.E.I. should be, but I got voted down,’’ Doiron said, referring to the 6-2 vote against his resolution.

Only Coun. Mitchell Tweel supported him.

“Lots of my residents in Ward 6 and around the city are continuously invaded by cinch bugs and it destroys their lawns and some people are faced with $6,000 for a new lawn. I had to do my front lawn over and it’s a big expense,’’ Doiron added.

The provincial government made it clear it had no interest in creating a bylaw for all municipalities, instead giving communities the ability to create their own bylaws.

Still, Doiron said either the province or the federation are in a better position than the city is to deal with the issue.

Duffy said it isn’t within the federation’s mandate to do such a thing.

“It’s not their chore or their responsibility or their authority to start writing bylaws for 72 municipalities for the province,’’ said Duffy.