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PRESENTATION TO THE EXECUTIVE
POLICY COMMITTEE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2005 SUBMITTED BY ROBIN FAYE, ON BEHALF OF CROW, INC. We appreciate and are thankful that a great deal of work and expertise has gone into the Report. However, we note that malathion remains a part of the City’s strategy, and this is still unacceptable to us. Hanging on to malathion as a last resort shows a lack of confidence in, and lack of committment to the new approach. This last-resort measure will fatally undermine the progress made by the other, newer tactics in the overall plan. Metheprene and pyrethrins are themselves dangerous, but may be useful in a program to phase out the use of chemical pesticides. With malathion remaining as any part of the City’s strategy, this phase out cannot occur. Introducing beneficial predators and then spraying them with malathion is simply a very bad idea. The imported beneficial predators will need more than one season (the life-cycle of the dragonfly is three or four years, depending on the species) to properly establish themselves and to re-establish the balance needed to keep mosquito populations to a minimum. But with malathion as any part of the City’s bug plan, the beneficial predators will not be able to do their beneficial work because they will be dead from malathion poisoning. In the meantime, residents of Winnipeg will continue to be intentionally, yet unnecessarily exposed to an expensive, proven health hazard. To achieve an environmentally safe approach, malathion must be removed from the City’s “toolbox”, and time allowed to repair the damage. |
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