Lawn-care company questions Summerside pesticide ban

A lawn-care company in Summerside, P.E.I., says the city's proposed pesticide bylaw is too onerous and costly.

Summerside has added Integrated Pest Management (IPM) policies used in New Brunswick to the controlled-use approach taken by the Charlottetown, Stratford and Cornwall.

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"Our traditional weed control products have been banned from use, as in Charlottetown and those areas," said Dan Murphy, a landscape pesticide applicator.

"However, we will also have to be accredited in IPM which is going to be costly and involves quite a bit of paperwork."

Non-domestic use only

IPM certification comes with an annual fee of about $500. It is for non-domestic pesticide use only, so homeowners won't have to get IPM training.

Murphy is asking Summerside to allow businesses to use "allowed" lawn-care chemicals without having to follow the IPM rules, and only require IPM with use of insecticides.

Summerside's horticulturalist Trent Williams says the committee is reviewing the recommendations, but he says the city likes the education, record keeping and monitoring IPM requires.

'Interested in information'

"They're responsible to keep record of what's being applied and how much is being applied. We're really interested in the information that that could provide us," he said.

Murphy is asking the city to phase-in the bylaw, and delay the IPM component until 2018.

Williams expects the final draft of the bylaw will go before council on Feb. 22, and the bylaw will be passed by early March.

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