Update on Leaf Blower Regulation - How Green Is Your Garden?

Lawn care equipment can emit high levels of carcinogenic hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that form ground level ozone, a noxious pollutant. It can permanently impair lung function especially in children, damage trees and crops, and is a key component of smog. NOx is a greenhouse gas contributing to the production of acid rain. Lawn care equipment can emit high levels of carbon monoxide, a colourless, odourless, poisonous gas as well as airborne particulate matter, which can be dangerous to asthma sufferers.

What you can do:
1. Use low emission equipment
• Replace gas-powered lawn equipment with cleaner, greener alternatives such as manual or battery-powered equipment.
• Dispose of old equipment by bringing it to a member of the Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (www.oara.com).

2. Hire Responsibly
• If hiring a landscape company, ask about their green business practices.
• Equipment should be manufactured 2007 or later to meet Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards.
• Request NO leaf blowers except for autumn leaves. Grass clippings should stay on lawns and gardens as valuable nutrients for soil.

Let’s start a conversation about what it really means to have a green garden. For more information click here.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery Development Dispute

The residents of Moore Part have been actively engaged in a dispute with the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC) over their construction of a privately run visitation centre at the south end of the cemetery at Moore and Welland. Despite almost unanimous opposition from city council, who voted 41 - 2 against MPGC's plans, and stiff opposition from local residents, the visitation centre was completed in the summer of 2010. Several legal questions about the legitimacy of the process undergone by the MPGC remain. A letter to the Attorney General's Office outlining the key issues was drafted by a prestigious law firm on behalf a local resident and a response is expected shortly. To learn more about the ongoing dispute, click here.