Councillor Jim Smith has asked that council revisit the perpetually
ridiculous cat issue—he’d like the city to embark on a “catch,
neuter, release” program for strays, an idea that has merit in the
abstract but will no doubt prove well beyond the city’s financial
capability.
And councillor Jennifer Watts wants council to ask the new NDP
provincial government to ban the sale of pesticides in Nova Scotia.
Such a ban would give teeth to Halifax’s ban on the application of
pesticides, but will certainly provoke cries of
social engineering and environmentalism run amok from rural and
suburban councillors.
Both issues are scheduled for discussion at this Tuesday’s council
meeting. As usual, The Coast will live-blog the absurdity via Twitter,
at twitter.com/twitcoast.
—TB
This article appears in Sep 17-23, 2009.
Banning the sale of pesticides is an important issue, not a petty one. A family member of mine has severe environmental illness and has had to remain inside her home for days on end because neighbours have sprayed their yards with pesticides. These chemicals can cause severe reactions for those who are allergic to them, including breathing and neurological troubles.
We do not need our nanny government banning the sale of sacks of weed & feed.
How dumb is Jim Smith to be continually wasting the time, money and energy of HRM in his neverending war against cats? This guy needs to be neutered to stop him from doing this sort of damage, or his political career euthanized.