Regina could see regulation on cosmetic pesticides in coming years
Wednesday council meeting also saw approval to some changes in the water bylaw
Regina city council has made it clear that homeowners will have to help cover costs of replacing aging lead pipes in the city.
Councillor voted in favour of requiring Regina homeowners will have to foot the bill when the city comes around to replace their portion of any lead pipe connections. The city pays for their part, and the homeowner pays for any connection that needs replacing on their property.
Residents who qualify are able to set up a payment plan with the city, should the cost of the replacement be too much all at once.
Pesticide regulation
One major change that could potentially come to the city is regulating the use of cosmetic pesticides. Coun. Cheryl Stadnichuk was one of the councillors who put the motion forward. She said it's an important issue to her, but also something she's heard a lot about from residents.
"So I've had someone who used to work for the cancer society, organic gardeners, and just a number of people who are really quite concerned about the fact that we still are using pesticides without any kind of regulation at all," she said.
Ten delegates spoke, or submitted a communication on this issue. All were in favour of approving the motion.
Stadnichuk said other municipalities have had this in place for years in some cases, and that the city is behind on taking action on this.
This isn't the first time councillors have tried to regulate pesticides.
Back in 2012, the city considered a similar motion but got so much pushback from businesses and industry that it dropped the possibility.
So, what's changed? Stadnichuk said she thinks there is more consideration put toward the environment and environmental health now, ten years on.
"And there's been a surge, especially during COVID, in people who have taken up gardening," she said.
"And more and more, people are finding that there's alternative ways of gardening, of maintaining your yard, and we heard from a lot of those kinds of people today."
The motion was tabled in the end, and in four weeks' time, administration will come back with an idea of how much time and money it would cost them to act on items in the original motion.
Stadnichuk said she's hopeful council will approve the motion at an upcoming meeting.