Pickets:
It was agreed that about every two weeks an information picket should be held at
appropriate locations, supported by media representatives, to draw attention to
the noise pollution problem
caused by propane cannons.
The following pickets were held:
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In late July, at the intersection of 16th Ave. and LeFeuvre Road in Abbotsford.
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In early August at 232nd St. and 20th Ave. in Langley.
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At the end of August at the Ministry of Agriculture offices in Abbotsford.
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In early September at a blueberry farm owned by the head of the local
blueberry growers organization.
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And our final picket of the season was held at the Minister of Agriculture's
office, the Office of Mr. John Van Dongen.
Presentations to Governments:
The third set of initiatives undertaken by the group were presentations to
municipal and provincial
government officials:
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On Monday, August 13th a presentation was given to Abbotsford Council, by
Roger C.
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On Friday, September 28th, the first meeting of the Mayor's "Propane Cannon
Advisory Select Committee" was
held. Subsequent meetings followed on October 16th, and October 30.
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On Friday Nov.30, a dozen of our members met with the Minister of
Agriculture, Mr. John
Van Dongen.
And that is a summary of our 2001 activities.
For those of you who wish to read the
details
of these activities, they can be found at the bottom of this page.
Pickets:
It was agreed that about every two weeks an information picket should be held at
appropriate locations to draw attention to the noise pollution problem caused
by propane cannons.
The following pickets were held:
-
Our first picket was held In late July, at the intersection of 16th Ave. and
LeFeuvre Road, in Abbotsford, in the heart of blueberry country. This
picket was a resounding success. The group got together beforehand and made
signs, shared
coffee and doughnuts and then marched to the
designated location. There we picketed from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, much to the
ire of local blueberry
farmers. Several newspapers sent reporters to cover the event and many people
passing
by gave us the big thumbs up! We handed out many pamphlets and received
coverage in
the local papers.
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Our second picket in early August was held in Langley, the township
adjacent to Abbotsford. Your
humble webmaster was unable to attend this picket, as he was busy haying, but I
was told
that the event was also a great success and it expanded our exposure outside of
Abbotsford. We also had newspaper and radio coverage of this event.
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Our third picket, held towards the end of August was at the Ministry of
Agriculture offices in
Abbotsford, and this event was covered by the local media as well as BC
TV. Our grievance
hit the TV airways that evening on the 6:00 news.
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A week later we picketed the residence and farm of the head of the local
blueberry
growers organization. This insignificant little farm had less than two acres
of blueberry bushes
planted, and used a dreadful AV Alarm Box that created a very load bird distress noise.
This
device was set to go off every 11 seconds, and the distress noise lasted for 11 seconds in duration.
Can you imagine! These devices, which are described in more detail on our
"Devices Page" can crank out sound at 120 decibels.
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Our final picket of the season was held at the Minister of Agriculture's
office, the Office of Mr. John Van Dongen.
At this time we delivered our demands to his staff asking to change the farm
practices act that allows the use of noise
makers as normal farm practices. Our view is that these devices must be
banned.
Presentations to Governments:
The second set of initiatives undertaken by the group were presentations to
municipal and provincial
government officials.
-
On Monday, August 13th a presentation was given to Abbotsford Council, by
Roger C.
of our group. The Mayor, George Ferguson and Alderman John Redekop were
particularly
supportive, and most other councillors were in favor of addressing the issue.
Coun. Redekop
proposed that a committee be set up to study the propane cannon issue and
report
its findings to the Provincial Ministry of Agriculture, which is ultimately
responsible for controlling
cannons.
This motion was passed and Mayor Ferguson stated that he would be a part of the
committee.
Only Councillors Gibson and Warawa spoke against the motion and only the
latter voted against it.
The objective of the committee was to present something to the Ministry of
Agriculture early in the
New Year (2002) to given farmers enough time to react prior to the next berry
season.
We all left the presentation feeling ecstatic. Our man Roger had done a
wonderful job!
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On Friday, September 28th, the first Mayor's committee meeting was held, and
named
the "Propane Cannon Advisory Select Committee". The Mayor attended, along with
Councillor
Moe Gill, also a berry farmer. Four blueberry growers were a part of the
committee as was a
member of the Blueberry council, representatives of the Ministry of
Agriculture, and our lone
representative, Roger. Roger may have been outnumbered but he more than held
his own
and lambasted the growers for their socially unacceptable practices of
bombarding their neighbors
with constant noise pollution. A number of issues were discussed and a second
meeting
scheduled.
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On October 16th the second meeting was held and the blueberry farmers failed
to turn up.
Our group turned up in force and filled the room. The representative from the
Blueberry Council,
Geraldine Auston, made a quick comment and excused herself shortly after the
session began,
never to be seen or heard from again. At this session presentations were
made by WCB
staff, concerning noise levels and the Pitt Meadows bylaw officer who described
how that
community handled the cannon issue.
Our group also presented our position paper on noise makers at this meeting.
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The next meeting was held on October 30. Only Ministry of Agriculture
representatives were
left, and they for some reason took on the role of defending the
absent growers. Needless to say they received the rath of those of us who
pay their salaries!
As it turns out these representatives had not even forwarded our position paper
to the Minister. They were
acting on their own initiative, and their position basically was the status
quo. At this meeting
our position was discussed, and Mayor Ferguson said that we were optimistic to
think cannons
could be banned by 2003. A more realistic date would be in about five years.
He did say this
folks!
The Ministry of Agriculture people were silent from then on. The next
meeting was planned
for one month later, Nov. 28th.
-
This meeting was cancelled at the last minute because the Ministry of
Agriculture rep's said
they would not be returning. Our group was very "down" about this because our
plan was to
expand upon Mayor Ferguson's five year statement and to finalize an approach
for getting there.
We think a political decision was made here that things were going too fast,
too soon! Calls were
made and not returned and our group became very restless.
Finally a call got through to the Minister of Agriculture who agreed to meet
with us.
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On Friday Nov.30, about a dozen of our members met with the Minister of
Agriculture, Mr. John
Van Dongen. We again expressed our strong opposition to the use of cannons,
the acceptance
of cannons as "normal farm practices", the impacts of noise on peoples lives,
etc. etc. Mr. Van
Dongen was very patient with us, even when one of our more exuberant members
suggested it
was time that politicians got "off their asses" and did something about this
issue! He then
explained that he had commissioned his staff to summarize the cannon problem
for him. His
plan is to review the cannon issue through the Xmas/New Year break of 2001, and
put a plan in
place early in the New Year, 2002. The situation will change he said, but he
would
not promise a ban
on cannons at this time, but also would not rule it out. He asked our group to
forward
a copy of our recommendations to him to be a part of his review.
This was a very
positive meeting and again
our group left a political meeting feeling very good.
And that is a detailed summary of our activities to date.
For more information about our group,
Ban the Cannons
please call:
Roger @ 604 856-2085 or
Terry @ 604 856-4209 or
send a note to :
bancannons@hotmail.com
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