Toronto wants to ban gas-powered leaf blowers

Citing noise and air pollution, a majority of city councilors in Toronto and Mayor Olivia Chow voted to ban leaf blowers and other small gas-powered appliances with two-stroke engines.

According to a municipal report, there is no “sufficient justification” to ban these landscaping machines, whether for “environmental, health or noise” reasons.

The elected officials who voted in favor of the ban on Wednesday (18 against 6) explain rather that it is a measure of “prevention”.

Councilwoman Dianne Saxe argued that the pollution was “cumulative”, adding that the City should take a “preventive approach to human health”.

The measure also arouses opposition. Landscaping company owner Sufian Ali told CBC earlier this month that leaf blowers are essential to his job. The same job that would take us 3 or 4 hours to do with rakes only takes 30 minutes with a leaf blowerhe said.

No deadline

No timeline has yet been set for the implementation of the ban.

According to the motion adopted by the city council, officials must identify the necessary resources and establish a plan. Money should be set aside for this purpose in the 2024 budget.

The infrastructure and environment committee must follow up on the file next year. There could also be a transition period of unspecified duration, before leaf blowers are banned for good.