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Greetings; We actually have a whole-province legislative emergency in process which is taking place with incredible speed and essentially no media coverage at all. The NS Government has put forward a huge Municipal Government Act, known as Bill 47, which has many useful parts to it, but unfortunately contains an extremely destructive section dealing with pesticide regulation by the municipalities. It is a piece of dream legislation from the pesticide industry's point of view and, for all we know, they had a hand in writing it (?) The legislation will apply to all 55 municipalities in Nova Scotia and, among other things, will prohibit any attempt now or in the future of any municipality to regulate pesticide use within their area. All they are offering is notification of when you will be exposed to poisons, and then only after you have already become ill! I am forwarding a notice for distribution that describes the problem briefly and how to register to speak. We only have a few days to get the message out, so urge anyone in NS with an interest in stopping this legislation to act quickly if they want to leave the door open to sane regulatory policies for urban pesticide use. Instead of Section 174 (1)j (p.76) of Bill 47, what is needed is a clear statute GIVING THE MUNICIPALITIES CLEAR POWERS TO REGULATE PESTICIDES. This should include the ability to prohibit their use if the municipal councils chose to do this. This is of course up to each council to decide! The NS Env Act does say specifically that a municipal bylaw is NOT illegal just because it imposes STRICTER regulations than those laid out in the NS Env Act. But Bill 47 would make those dealing with pesticides an impossibility. Thanks so much for passing this on to anyone, or any organization, in Nova Scotia you think would want to know about this emergency situation. We can do this working together! RATE ========================================================================== Subject: Bill 47 STOP THE NS GOVERNMENT'S FLAWED PESTICIDE LEGISLATION! MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT ACT BILL 47 (Section 174 (1)j, p.76) URGENT: Call Gordon Hebb's Office (424-8941) NOW SIGN UP TO SPEAK When This Bill comes before the Law Amendments Committee in the first week of November (or soon after - you will be notified when) Bill 47 would put into effect a greatly weakened pesticide "registration" system in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) AND THROUGHOUT NOVA SCOTIA in which: -All present spraying and pesticide application continues as before, totally unchecked, and unlimited in frequency and location - near your wells, near your schools, and near your children! -Only ill residents will be able to find out when their neighbours plan to spray. This means you will be unable to find out this information to protect your healthy children. In order to qualify for notification you must wait until your children or someone in your family actually has developed asthma, breast cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, endocrine system disturbances, other illnesses or... become pesticide sensitive like so many others! -Spraying near schools IN SESSION is still allowed! -2,4-D residues from you neighbour's lawn will still come indoors, bond with your house dust, and remain there for up to a year! -Those sensitive to pesticides must EVACUATE their homes for days on end, for an unlimited number of times during the spring , summer and fall, while having no compensation and no place to go! -WITH THE WORDS "...but a bylaw made pursuant to this clause may not prohibit the use of pesticides..", THIS BILL WILL ALSO MAKE ILLEGAL ANY FUTURE HRM BYLAW THAT WOULD ATTEMPT TO CONTROL PESTICIDE USE! AND BILL 47's PESTICIDE SECTION WOULD APPLY TO ALL MUNICIPALITIES IN NOVA SCOTIA. IF ANY ONE OF THE 55 NS MUNICIPALITIES EVER TRIES TO PASS A BYLAW REGULATING PESTICIDE USE, THEY WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO! ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** You don't have to have special expertise to speak! Just state your concerns in ordinary language. Up to 15 minutes is allowed for each speaker, so use any portion of that you wish. Sign up to speak IMMEDIATELY, and ask others to oppose this legislation. Our public policies should be determined by THE PUBLIC, not those who profit from pesticides. Please help reinstate the original carefully drafted request for pesticide jurisdiction that was already requested TWICE by HRM as amendments to the HRM Act: once on April 22, 1997, and once on August 25, 1998. HRM's reversal on October 13,1998. was a result of coercion. The original form of this legislation would have had NO EFFECT on agriculture or forestry in or out of HRM because it would have prohibited landscape pesticides only within a few hundred feet of registered homes. Agricultural regulations wouldn't have permitted this anyway!
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