National

Leaf blowers, gas tools axed in Oak Bay, B.C.

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 26 May, 2022 04:26 PM

OAK BAY, B.C. - Gas-powered leaf blowers and other landscaping tools fuelled by gas will soon be banned in the Vancouver Island District of Oak Bay.

Councillors have voted unanimously in favour of a ban on the noisy, fume-producing tools, including chainsaws and lawn mowers.

Users, from homeowners to professional landscaping companies, will have three years to phase out gas-powered items.

Staff must submit a report to council within the next month providing recommendations for a new bylaw and proposals for education and enforcement.

Gas-powered leaf blowers have been banned in parts of Vancouver's West End for more than 20 years and council passed a motion in January to phase out all gas-powered landscaping tools by 2024.

The District of Saanich also flirted with a ban on leaf blowers last year but the motion failed and the issued was referred to committee for further work.

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

Better B.C. wildfire links will save lives: report

The report from Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., makes six recommendations, including ensuring remote and Indigenous communities have robust communications systems in place where emergency officials can relay fast and accurate information about wildfires.

Better B.C. wildfire links will save lives: report

Liberals need to move on fiscal plan, expert says

Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page says the Liberals may want to release the document in November and use it to introduce some spending and tax measures.

Liberals need to move on fiscal plan, expert says

Knife-edge races wait for mail ballot count

Mail ballots have to be carefully checked to ensure they have been signed and that people have not already voted in person, or sent in more than one ballot by post.

Knife-edge races wait for mail ballot count

More charges against North Van stabbing suspect

A woman in her 20s was stabbed and killed near the Lynn Valley library branch on March 27. Six other people, ranging in age from 22 to 78, were also hurt.

More charges against North Van stabbing suspect

Canadians vote overwhelmingly for climate action

The Conservative climate plan in 2019 was widely panned as lacking in both detail and ambition, something Erin O'Toole acknowledged was a weakness. He made a climate plan a priority after he took over the leadership in 2020, releasing a climate plan months ahead of the election that included a form of carbon pricing, reversing more than a decade of Conservative policy that carbon pricing was "a tax on everything."

Canadians vote overwhelmingly for climate action

COVID-19 safety rules too weak at polls: workers

Mary Rose Amaral says she wanted to participate in democracy by working at a Toronto voting station, despite being immunocompromised with asthma, and she expected Elections Canada to take more precautions to protect its employees.