Saint-Lambert presented its new draft bylaw banning synthetic pesticides throughout its territory, including golf courses, on Monday evening. Concerned about its “sustainability,” the Country Club of Montreal, which operates on land belonging to this South Shore municipality, filed a petition with the council.
“We absolutely want to continue playing golf, but we don’t want to breathe in harmful materials, we don’t want to have that under our shoes and bring that into the house,” said Saint-Lambert Mayor Pascale Mongrain in an interview Monday.
“We followed the Montreal regulation” by “limiting the use of synthetic pesticides to the strict minimum,” summarized Mr.me Mongrain.
In Saint-Lambert, as in most of Quebec, the regulation on synthetic pesticides grants broad exemptions to golf courses. The new framework presented Monday would leave only two exceptions, as in Montreal: to control plantain in the spring, and gray or pink snow mold in the fall.
Read the article “Montreal wants to wean golf courses”
“Our members signed a petition […] to also express their concern about a regulation that would harm the practice of our sport,” announced the vice-president of the Country Club of Montreal, Paul Côté, during the council’s question period, without specifying the number of signatures.
This project “endangers the sustainability of the Country Club,” denounced the club’s president, Josée Fortier, in an email to members and users at the beginning of August. The petition asks to take into account “the economic and societal impacts that an overly restrictive regulation could have.”
The Country Club land belongs to the City, which has signed a long-term lease until 2050.
Mr. Côté asked to meet with the City to discuss “grey areas,” which the mayor spontaneously accepted. “As we have done with you for the past year and a half, the lines of communication are very, very open and I don’t think there could have been more transparency,” Mr. Côté stressed.me Mongrain.
The Country Club has 746 members, of which just over a third (256) live in Saint-Lambert.
The municipality has another course, the Saint-Lambert Golf Club. This nine-hole course nicknamed “the little golf course” also rents a municipal course. “We are still evaluating the impact that this will have on our operations,” its administration told us Monday.
Mayor Mongrain hopes to have the bylaw adopted at the September 16 council meeting, for entry into force on September 1.er next January.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Amélie Bélair, whose yard overlooks the golf course of the Country Club of Montreal, in Saint-Lambert
Monday’s motion is “a first step in the right direction,” said Amélie Bélair, whose land adjoins the Country Club.
Mme Bélair, who has a 9-year-old daughter, has taken multiple steps to tighten the regulations. “It’s not just for me,” assures the Lambertoise. “It’s for a broader principle: I have a lot of difficulty understanding that in 2024, we’re allowing organizations to use products that are recognized as carcinogenic for leisure.”