With summer right around the corner, the issue of gypsy moths in Quinte West is beginning to rear its head again.
At Monday night’s Quinte West council meeting a member of the public sent a letter to council asking that something be done about the gypsy moth infestation.
This issue has been constant since summer 2020 and beyond, with the municipalities and the province insisting that the other is responsible for taking care of it.
Council discussed the matter in March and agreed a regional approach is the best option and that the onus falls on the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
At the meeting Monday, Director of Public Works and Environmental Services Chris Angelo reaffirmed the municipality’s stance on the gypsy moth problem.
“We still believe, and I believe council still is concurrent, that this is a regional issue that needs to be dealt with at the provincial level through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. I still believe that that is the case. Gypsy moths do not adhere to boundary lines and with our neighbouring municipalities not spraying at all it makes no sense for our municipality to spray in addition to what that cost, that significant cost, would be.”
Angelo specified that council has already sent a letter to the province and, through the office of Bay of Quinte Member of Provincial Parliament Todd Smith, the province has held its stance that the responsibility falls on the municipalities, not the province.
Mayor Jim Harrison suggested that staff reach out to neighbouring municipalities to garner support for a petition to be sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to ask them to take action.
“Personally, I think that this council should petition the provincial government to enact something that would contribute to the process and give us the opportunity to help people. I don’t think that right now, with the legislation that we work under, that we can go onto private property and do any kind of work that is satisfactory in this case. I think that as Director Angelo has stated, that it’s got to be done by region. It can’t just be done by one municipality. If it’s one municipality, we won’t win.”
Councillors Lynda Reid, Karen Sharpe and Sally Freeman all made note of the fact that there are resources on the city’s website to help people mitigate the effect of gypsy moths. Councillor Freeman also asked that the resources be made easier to find on the website.
Council voted on and approved a motion to have the public works department draft a letter to be circulated to neighbouring municipalities and to be sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry urging them to take action on the gypsy moth infestation.
