While the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, blamed the “bums” who continue to spread harmful pesticides on the lawns of Quebec citizens, the opposition instead insisted on the importance that municipal regulations be really applied.
• Also read: “It’s the Wild West”: harmful pesticides on Quebec lawns
Thursday, the municipal world of Quebec reacted to the revelations of Journal according to which the spraying continued briskly last summer even though it is now prohibited. Only one report was issued to a company which refused to register.
“There are good companies, and then there are bums. There are people who don’t care about the health of citizens. What they want is to sell something,” lamented Mayor Marchand.
The latter, however, recognized that “it is not easy for the citizen who orders the use of weed control through a private company. If he is told that it is organic, he is not the one who will take a sample every time his contractor comes to his house. […] Everyone must comply. Otherwise, of course, these people should not do business.”
Municipal oppositions
Called to comment, Claude Villeneuve, leader of the municipal official opposition, maintained that “under Bruno Marchand, that’s what we do. We adopt regulations that we do not apply […] There is the Marchand method which is starting to reveal itself more and more,” he noted, recalling that his political party voted in favor of the regulation on pesticides.
Same reasoning for Stevens Mélançon, municipal councilor for Équipe priority Québec. “We applied a regulation that we are not able to control. We can go and get pesticides in L’Ancienne-Lorette, everywhere, and there are even pesticide companies that do not comply,” he regretted.
For her part, Jackie Smith, head of Transition Québec, also said that “it’s disappointing. On the issue of pesticides, there was a consensus. All parties [municipaux] agreed. It was slow to be adopted. Then now, we haven’t implemented it so that it has the impact it’s supposed to have […] When it’s a question of children’s health, we can’t take it lightly.”
A pesticide police
Serge Boily, vice-president of the Victimes des pesticides du Québec organization, called on Quebec City to establish a “pesticide police” to ensure that its regulations are enforced.
According to him, “the application is problematic. In Quebec City, they do not have a pesticide police force. The way they operate is through denunciation. But it doesn’t work.”
– With the collaboration of Stéphanie Martin
