The council banned all gas-powered blowers, and severely restricted when all other types can be used.
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Starting next week, all gas-powered leaf blowers will be banned in the city’s most populous borough, and all other types will only be permitted from October until May.
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On Tuesday, the Cote-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce council unanimously approved a bylaw that will outright ban all two-stroke gas-powered leaf blowers in the borough. All other leaf blowers will be prohibited between June 1 and Sept. 30. During the period when the leaf blowers are permitted, they can only be used from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays, and at no time on Sundays and official statutory holidays. Since the bylaw was just voted on this week, it will take until next week for it to come into effect.
Fines range from $300 to $3,000 for individuals, and up to $12,000 for companies.
Loyola councillor Despina Sourias said the rule was adopted to improve air quality and the quality of life of citizens, as the gas-powered leaf blowers in particular make a lot of noise.
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“We got a lot of requests for this, but we have limited powers on things like this, but we do have power over noise,” Sourias said. “The groups we spoke to also spoke about how much they polluted.”
Other boroughs have adopted similar bans: Outremont, Ville-Marie and Sud-Ouest. Sourias said her borough’s ban is modelled after those bylaws. The city of Beaconsfield also adopted a ban that went into effect in 2019.
Two groups, the Coalition for Green and Quiet Neighbourhoods and La voix verte des quartiers, pushed for this ban, and thousands of citizens also signed petitions.
Keroles Riad, a spokesperson for the coalition, said most people don’t realize how much greenhouse gas is emitted by the two-stroke leaf blowers. He said as opposed to car engines that have improved their efficiency over time, the engines in leaf blowers have not evolved much. In fact, Environment Canada recently tweeted that a typical gas-powered leaf blower emits roughly as much greenhouse gas in one hour as a car driving from Toronto to Halifax.
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Riad added that it’s also bad for the environment to blow or rake leafs away. Keeping them where they are encourages more biodiversity and makes the soil richer when they are composted, which can help plant a garden with diverse plants and vegetables.
He said he’s overjoyed that the leaf blowers were banned in Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, and he hopes this will lead to other boroughs following suit. He said his group will now work on getting other boroughs to adopt similar bans, and gas-powered lawn mowers, which also emit a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gases. Once enough boroughs pass such bylaws, the next step is to push for the sale of such equipment to be banned.
Sourias said she’s pleased she was able to champion the dossier to council.
“I’m proud we were able to act on this quickly,” she said. “It was a big request, and I’m proud to have worked on this and make a difference.”
