Propane Cannons invade Vancouver Island

Propane cannons have now invaded the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island, and we have a number of new members at Ban the Cannons as a result.

A few years ago, the Island Berry Company bought a parcel of land adjacent to a residential area in Saanich, with about 500 homes. The company planted blueberries. Not long after the planting was completed, the fields were visited by Canada geese, and the geese started eating the buds and leaves off the new plants.

To combat geese the berry farm resorted to using propane cannons, much to the annoyance of surrounding neighbours. If you look closely at the picture to the right you will see that neighbour's homes are directly adjacent to the blueberry field, and cannons were positioned just beyond 200 meters from the nearest home. The neighbours filed a formal complaint against the berry farm, and they are now embroiled in FIRB red tape.

The FIRB process as many of us have found out is totally farmer friendly, almost to the point of being a waste of time for neighbours to even bother with. The Saanich residents wanted to file their complaint as a group of 500 residents, which would give them much more clout, but FIRB rules limit complaints to one farm and one complainant.

Jim McMurtry in Cloverdale ran up against this same issue. Jim was, and still is, affected by the noise from many nearby farms, but had to select one farm to complain against. This caused much animosity between the single farmer and Mr. McMurtry, while the rest of the blueberry farms continued blasting away and violating propane cannon guidelines as they always have.

To combat biased FIRB regulations nine additional Saanich residents have filed Formal Complaints against the Island Berry Farm and hopefully this will raise the issue to a higher level of government, above the heads of FIRB bureaucrats. Where propane cannons are concerned, some common sense is needed, and FIRB bureaucrats are not displaying any of it!

The FIRB process was best described by Abbotsford News Editor Andrew Holota in a 2009 editorial. Click on the following to read Andrew's scathing opinion of the FIRB process, titled: Antiquated Legislation Protecting Ludicrous Practices