It was great news for municipalities to hear that efforts are being made to lessen restrictions on cosmetic pesticide use throughout the province.

Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) president Kam Blight is also reeve of the RM of Portage la Prairie, and knows first-hand how it affects municipalities. He says this 2014 change in restrictions cost an incredible amount of unnecessary money for municipalities.

"The provincial government put in place a nonessential cosmetic pesticide ban," explains Blight. "That basically prevents homeowners, municipalities, landscape companies, and so on, from utilizing chemicals to control weeds on lawns, boulevards, and parks."

Blight says amendments are being made to this, and are allowing federally Health Canada approved pesticides to be used.

He says it's a massive win for municipalities.

"The products that we were allowed to use in the past were very ineffective and municipalities were seeing costs of 10 to 15 times the normal cost because of all the over-application that they're having to do," explains Blight. "There's been multiple attempts to control these weeds with extra staff, time, fuel, and so on, and, obviously, chemical uses as well. Municipalities, homeowners and landscape companies are going to be able to use chemicals that will control these weeds, manage them much more effectively, and that will reduce municipalities' costs immensely. That's very important at this time as municipalities are facing strong financial pressures because of the COVID pandemic."

Blight says the AMM spoke out against the current restrictions since they were first introduced.

"It's been one that's been on our books for quite some time," continues Blight. "We've been definitely working very hard with the provincial government to make changes to this and we would really like to thank Minister Wharton for making this happen. And this is something that is very vital to municipalities in controlling the weeds and, obviously, keeping their costs in check."

He notes it's now before the House and he says they're really hoping it's expedited.

"Hopefully, it's something that's approved rather quickly and we can move with proper and effective control in our municipalities. We really look forward to working with the province to help communicate and inform our members of these positive changes," adds Blight. "And once again, we're very appreciative of the province of Manitoba for making this change."

He says he acknowledges that when somebody refers to chemicals, the tendency is to become uneasy.

"These are chemicals that have gone through rigorous Health Canada Review processes -- multiple, multiple review processes -- and are deemed to be safe," notes Blight. "So, municipalities and landscapers alike will be using the safest chemicals to take care of the weed issues that we have seen expand since 2014."