The City of Winnipeg has stopped short on a pesticide ban and has instead decided to focus on signs and awareness.
"What it does is that it does put it on the record that council views pesticides on lawns as an issue of health," said city councillor Jenny Gerbasi. "It's something worth bringing in a bylaw for. It's a first step."
The bylaw includes a requirement by commercial applicators to use larger lawn signs so it's easier to see when pesticides have been applied.
In September, city council recommended allowing buffer zones around properties where the home owner objects to pesticide use.
But the bylaw doesn't include any buffer zones. The city is waiting for the provincial government to step in and restrict pesticides on a province-wide basis.
Quebec has banned pesticides altogether and Ontario is now in the process of bringing in a ban.
The proposed pesticide bylaw goes before the city's Standing Policy Committee on Monday.
If approved the bylaw will go into effect January 1, 2009 and a public education campaign will begin this summer.
130 other Canadian municipalities already restrict pesticide use.
