WHEREAS currently The Weed Control Act only allows for a municipality to engage the services of a weed inspector for the purposes of controlling noxious & nuisance weeds; and

WHEREAS the process can be cumbersome if the Weed Inspector is not diligent in his or her duties, or the landowner is not diligent in following the orders as set out by the Municipal Weed Inspector; and

WHEREAS currently the only avenue for controlling noxious and nuisance weeds is by engaging a Weed Inspector and either spraying or tilling, at the discretion of the Weed Inspector, these weeds; and

WHEREAS once the order is carried out by the Weed Inspector the costs are invoiced to and paid for by the municipality and then added to the taxes of the landowner which can take years for the municipality to collect so the expense of a landowner is borne by all landowners; and

WHEREAS this current avenue is not fixing the problem of the noxious or nuisance weeds because some landowners choose not to farm the land year after year so the problem perpetuates year after year as do the expenses on the municipality; therefore

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM strike a steering committee to develop an amendment to The Weed Control Act that would allow a rural municipality another avenue when dealing with recurring noxious and nuisance weed issues i.e. take over and custom farm land that has been neglected for a period of two years.

View the response from the Minister of Agriculture