The National Capital Commission will ban the use of leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and other small gasoline-powered tools on its property – and the City of Ottawa could potentially follow suit.
Although the ban does not come into effect until April 2023, it shows that “the NCC is committed to leadership on climate change,” CEO Toby Nussbaum said in a statement.
The new policy will also cover small chainsaws and string trimmers, the NCC said, and will apply to all agency maintenance contractors.
The date of 2023 was chosen to give these entrepreneurs enough time to make the transition, said NCC spokesperson Dominique Huras.
Three-fifths of the NCC’s small tools are already battery-powered, Huras said.
According to the NCC, research in California has shown that turning on a top-selling gasoline-powered commercial leaf blower for an hour generates as much pollution as driving 1,760 kilometers in a 2016 Toyota Camry – about the distance of Ottawa to Dryden, Ontario. .
California has already filed a law banning the sale of gasoline-powered lawn equipment by 2024. Nussbaum said the NCC is the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt such a ban.
Used in parks, near schools
Inspired in part by the position of the NCC, Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King tabled a notice of motion in the Ottawa environment committee on Tuesday to have the Department of Public Works phase out gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment when it needs to be replaced and switched to electricity.
The inefficient two-stroke engines used in the majority of such equipment emit “more than 20 times the toxic and carcinogenic exhaust gases” of a vehicle, King told the committee.
“Consider how often the city uses leaf blowers in public parks, near schools, or to maintain other public spaces,” King said. “It’s definitely a challenge.”
It makes sense for us to step up our own efforts and move away from this obsolete and harmful technology as quickly as possible.– Tale. King Rawlson
They are also excessively loud, noted King, and generally exceed both the city’s noise regulations for equipment, such as air conditioners and swimming pool filtration pumps, and the sound standards of the World Health Organization. health for noise during the day.
Other Canadian municipalities are considering similar bans, King said. The city already has many “reciprocal maintenance agreements” with the NCC, he added.
“It makes sense for us to step up our own efforts and move away from this obsolete and harmful technology as quickly as possible,” he said.
King’s motion will be considered at the next Environment Committee meeting in February 2022.
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