Outremont the latest Montreal-area borough to ban gas-powered leaf blowers

Landscapers upset about leaf blower ban After Outremont, other boroughs plan to ban gas-powered leaf blowers but landscapers are asking for more time to adapt to the changes.

Montreal's Outremont borough has become the latest district on the island to enact a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

As the multi-coloured foliage continues to fall from the trees, those with two-stroke engine-powered substitutes for rakes will have to trade in for an electric model in a growing number of cities and neighbourhoods.

"A total ban on gas-powered leaf blowers was voted at the Outremont council on Oct. 6," said borough mayor Laurent Desbois.

The mayor said the ban goes further than any other on the island.

"We're not only banning the two-stroke engine but also the four-stroke and any other type; it will be banned completely," said Desbois.

Dubois said the bylaw comes from demand from the citizens, and it was one of the mayor's election promises during the municipal campaign.

"They are extremely noisy, and there are a lot of trees and leaves in Outremont, so we hear the leaf blowers," he said. "Usually, there's not only one blower. There are a couple of leaf blowers that are in play at the same time. It's extremely noisy."

Outremont has a special committee tasked with reducing the borough's carbon footprint.

"I see this as a first step in making Outremont a greener and quieter place," said the mayor.

Heating and transportation are the two areas the borough is looking at combatting.

The leaf blower ban will go into effect in May 2023.

Outremont is just one borough legislating the use of leaf blowers that many have criticized for their environmental and noise pollution effects.

GROWING NUMBER OF BANS

Other municipalities and boroughs have restricted the use of leaf blowers.

The Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace (CDN-NDG) borough amended a bylaw in June and restricted the hours leaf blowers could be used.

No leaf blower with a two-stroke gasoline engine can be used, none can be used before Sept. 30, and between Oct. 1 and May 31, blowers can only be used Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., or on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Ville-Marie and Sud-Ouest boroughs also have banns on gas-powered blowers, and Westmount Mayor Christina M. Smith is also proposing an electric-only bylaw.

"The driving force is that gas-powered leaf blowers carry a heavy environmental toll on the environment," she said in a release. "They have a negative impact on health due to exposure to toxic fumes and unsafe noise levels at close range."

Westmount's city council will discuss the proposed bylaw on Tuesday night.

Beaconsfield also banned leaf blowers between June 1 and Sept. 30 in 2018.