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Letter: Please leave well enough alone

We are not in Oak Bay
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Please leave well enough alone

Recently, we read news about one individual who asked our North Cowichan municipal council to consider a ban on “gas-powered” garden tools. I found this curious because there are very few gas-powered garden tools.

There is plenty of non-powered garden equipment, short handled and long handled, such as rakes, shovels, cultivators of many sizes, manual hand pruners, manual branch pruners; you get the picture.

On the other hand however, there is plenty of gas, gas mixture landscaping tools such as power saws, hedge trimmers, weed whackers, pole saws, lawn mowers, lawn tractors, power washers, leaf blowers, and lawn aerators. So, there are two types of “tools” to consider; the reference to garden tools is broader when you consider “landscaping”.

Without going into significant detail there are many reasons why such a restriction on North Cowichan residents makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, would increase household costs as well as imposed higher costs on those folks who do landscape management for a living. The idea is not applicable here and should be completely abandoned without any further waste of North Cowichan staff time and get on with other council business.

The letter writer described a recent action by the city of Oak Bay as a comparative. We are not in Oak Bay. North Cowichan is nothing like the urban centre of Oak Bay. We are rural in nature; we have significant landscape management challenges in many of our properties. In my case, with over a half acre, I have large hedges and my own little forest of trees that requires attention along with a large lawn, fruit trees, many large shrubs and bushes to tend. There is absolutely nothing in North Cowichan that resembles Oak Bay; one size does not fit all. In my case, similar to my neighbours, I have a suite of tools necessary for each specific task. I maintain, in some cases, two tools of similar action; one gas powered and one either electric or Lithium Ion battery powered. Folks need the flexibility to make their own choices for their particular needs and management requirements. We do not need our municipality to invoke “bans” or even phased in “bans”. In some cases, the power of a gas or gas mixture piece of equipment is necessary to do the job at hand and electric and battery equipment just isn’t up to the job. And why go to the cost of replacing a good working order gas powered piece of equipment unnecessarily. And, please don’t even think about more subsidies which only cost tax payers more in their over burdening property taxes.

The letter writer that put forward this proposal burns firewood for heating among other things. By my last check, firewood comes from trees; trees are felled, split and delivered by trucks or some other gas powered machine. Heck there may have even been a diesel powered logging truck involved. That very firewood is therefore generated with noisy equipment and carbon polluting which were two of the letter writers stated objections. Further, if these individuals are burning wood during fall, winter and spring to provide ambience and heat in their house, then this makes them the consummate hypocrites as burning firewood generates plenty of air pollution and carbon release. Perhaps their neighbours, who might be annoying them with gas powered equipment, might be annoyed by their columns of wood smoke wafting around that neighbours house. To be clear, I love wood fireplaces and I love the smell of firewood burning and the ambience of a good wood fire and support wood burning fireplaces. This particular reference describes how folks might propose something yet act hypocritically; do as I say, not as I do.

With respect to noise, let me offer this view. Anyone who moves into and lives in a subdivision knows full well that there is a normal and acceptable level of noise generated during the day by folks enjoying their properties and maintaining their properties. That noise, be it power washing or lawn mowing or tree removal is fleeting, often seasonal and depends upon the subdivision where folks live. Obviously, in my neighbourhood which is all half acre or more sized lots, there is plenty of “biomass” management required at specific times of year. However, places like the new Kingsview sub-division, with small lots, mostly rock, have very little tending required. Each landowner can acquire the tool necessary for their own particular situation be it battery, electric or petroleum. It is not up our municipality to impose unreasonable restrictions on individual home owners.

Finally, our municipality already has in place a variety of bylaws regarding noise and time of day constraints. Please leave well enough alone.

Bryan Wallis

Maple Bay