February 7th Council Meeting Notes: Lymantria Moth Spray Program, Overdose Crisis, AEDs, Smoking

On Monday, Langley City Council heard from several speakers representing various organizations at its public meeting.

The BC government has a program to use aerial sprayed biological insecticide to eradicate Lymantria moths. These moths are invasive and destroy our indigenous ecosystems. People typically unknowingly transport these moths into BC on their vehicles when they return from areas of North America with an established moth population.

This spring, the province will be spraying an area along Fraser Highway, between 232nd Street and 248th Street. Many people become alarmed when they see a low flying aircraft going in loops in an area.

Moth aerial spray area. Select map to enlarge.

The province will host an open house on Wednesday, March 2nd, between 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm. For more information, please visit the province’s website.

Lisa Weih, who was speaking on behalf of Moms Stop the Harm, told a personal story about how the overdose crisis impacted her family and caused the death of her child. She asked that we join other municipalities in calling on the federal government to address the overdose crisis.

Council passed the following motion as a result:

THAT Council request the Federal Government to declare the overdose crisis a national public health emergency and to work with Provinces to develop a comprehensive pan-Canadian plan for ending the overdose and drug poisoning crisis.

Ken Leggatt from St. John Ambulance presented his organization’s plan to roll out outdoor, Automated External Defibrillators (AED) units throughout the Lower Mainland. These easy-to-use devices keep people alive if someone has a heart attack. AED units save lives. St. John Ambulance and its partners are placing AED units at the Richmond Canada Line stations, Townsend Park in Chilliwack, and Crescent Beach in Surrey.

Leggatt asked that Langley City join the program. Each outdoor AED unit costs $7,000, including two years of maintenance by St. John Ambulance. I invited Leggatt to apply for a Langley City Community Grant to help fund the installation of AED units in Langley City.

Council also heard from Liam Razzel from Action on Smoking & Health, an Edmonton-based organization. He asked that Langley City update the non-smoking provisions in our bylaws. Today, you can essentially only smoke in private spaces or sidewalks outside of a commercial area. One of the recommendations included adding beaches to our list of public spaces where smoking should be banned. Council did not take any action based on the presentation.