Steven Hill
shill@squamishchief.com
Coun. Patricia Heintzman asked council to propose municipal staff pen a report on pesticide use in the Squamish area."West Vancouver is already looking into banning pesticide use, and the town of Hudson in Quebec was the first community to ban their use," she said. "I think it is worthwhile to have a report on our use of pesticides."
Coun. Corinne Lonsdale said to her knowledge the DOS only used pesticides for specific reasons, and only used them "responsibly". She said other incarnations of council had attempted to address the same issue.
"Other councils have been 'green' before and wanted to ban pesticides," she said. "At the end of the day they were not able to follow through on the idea for one reason or another."
Lonsdale suggested examining the current bylaws concerning pesticide use, before commissioning a report.Heintzman said it was still worthwhile to consider banning pesticide use in Squamish.
"There are other alternatives which could be used instead of pesticides," she said.
Coun. Jeff McKenzie said he noticed DOS workers using vinegar on weeds in the downtown area instead of pesticides.Heintzman said online research had indicated homeowners who used pesticides improperly were the biggest problem.Lonsdale suggested putting a question concerning pesticide use on the upcoming byelection ballot.
Chief ElectionOfficer appointed
Keeping in line with the Local Government Act, council appointed Trudy Coates as Chief Election Officer for conducting the 2006 byelection with power to appoint other officials as required.
Council also instructed staff to add $27,000 to the 2006-2010 financial plan to fund the byelection.
The Community Charter and Local Government Act requires a byelection for a vacant office on municipal council to be held as soon as possible. One office of councillor became vacant with the death of Ray Peters on March 30.
With the appointment of Coates as CEO on April 11, the vacancy must now be filled through a byelection by June 30.
Grant-in-aidapproved for triathlon
Council approved a Grant-in-Aid request in the amount of $1,015.98 to the Squamish Youth Triathlon to cover the cost of renting municipal-owned facilities and for the purchase of an ad in the Recreation Services Spring Brochure.
Bear Smartprogram funded
Council approved completion of the winter month's Bear Smart public awareness program with $3,000 in additional funding for the months of April and May 2006.
Coucil also voted to approve through the budget process an additional amount of $5,500 for Bear Smart coordination program expenses in 2006, and endorse Protective Services participation in the provincially-funded BC Conservation Foundation Bear Aware Program.
