By Lyla Miller
First, the city passed the anti-smoking bylaw, making it illegal to light up in any restaurant or bar from Cumberland to West Carleton.
Now, there’s pressure on City Hall to restrict lawn pesticides.
And above the melee of industry lobbies, public consultation sessions and court challenges is Dr. Robert Cushman, Ottawa’s medical officer of health.
Before amalgamation, Cushman had the same position for the Ottawa-Carleton regional municipality. He says his duty is “to protect the health of people here and to protect their quality of life.”
Cushman started dealing with the smoking issue long ago, but each of the 11 former municipalities had its own idea of what — if anything — ought to be done. Coordinating them was a nightmare, he says.
“You can’t have a situation where you’re doing one thing on one side of the street and another on the other side.”
Cushman and some city councillors working on health issues agree the single city has in some ways made their job easier.
“From a regulation standpoint, it’s opened up opportunities,” Cushman says.
“This is not well understood, but amalgamation is the reason for the anti-smoking bylaw,” says Kanata Coun. Alex Munter.
As chair of the health, recreation and social services committee, Munter advised city council to adopt Ottawa’s controversial bylaw in 2001.
Somerset Coun. Elisabeth Arnold, committee vice-chair, says amalgamation “has erased barriers that were sometimes used as an excuse for not acting on important health issues like pesticides and smoking.”
But Barry McKay, general manager of the Pub and Bar Coalition of Ontario – which unsuccessfully challenged the smoking bylaw in court on grounds that it over-stepped the city’s jurisdiction – puts it a little differently.
“Under the confusion, Dr. Cushman decided on his own to get (the anti-smoking bylaw) through in the merger. It was manoeuvred through the back door.”
“It’s all about the Cushmans, the Cullens, the Deanses and the Munters. It’s all the left-wing councillors,” MacKay adds. “I think City Hall has the vision of a gerbil.”
An Ottawa Citizen editorial recently criticized “Crusading Cushman” for overstepping his job description and making policy decisions for elected officials.
But Cushman insists he’s just doing his job. “It’s all in a day’s work. I don’t vote,” he points out.
“Certainly, I recommended (the anti-smoking bylaw) to council. But clearly they understood the need to protect the public’s health.”
Since amalgamation, Cushman says, the media has paid him a lot of attention “all because of the tobacco bylaw. If it weren’t for the bylaw, nobody would know who I am.”
According to Arnold, “the media has played up Dr. Cushman as this omnipotent guy around City Hall, but that’s not really accurate.”
Says Bell-South Nepean Coun. Jan Harder, “We don’t always do what Dr. Cushman says.”
Last November, city council voted to stop spreading recycled biosolids on farms, despite Cushman’s opinion that using treated human waste posed no health risks.
Harder says she would definitely vote against a pesticide ban, because most of her constituents don’t want one.
Cushman says he was the one who set the health agenda before amalgamation, but now city councillors are bringing issues to him.
“They asked for reports on pesticides, biosolids and pig farms,” he says, adding that this is keeping him extremely busy.
Cullen has taken the lead to eliminate pesticides, a key election platform issue in his last campaign.
He says evidence linking lawn pesticides to human disease justifies a city-wide ban on cosmetic use.
But Cushman’s office says while “a growing number of scientific studies point to serious health risks associated with the use of pesticides,” Ottawa residents aren’t yet ready for a residential ban.
A recent staff report recommends more public education and co-operation with industry instead, adding that if certain reduction goals aren’t met by the end of 2005 a bylaw may be considered.
The report was discussed on Nov. 21 at a marathon 16-hour health, recreation and social services committee meeting, where more than 100 delegates spoke.
Cullen and Arnold were both upset that the report didn’t call for an immediate ban.
“Why does the city say there’s a clean link between pesticides and disease and then say we’re not ready to act yet?” asks Cullen.
Unlike the smoking issue, Cushman’s office is taking a soft approach to pesticides — for now.
But when asked for advice, he did tell the committee, “I think we need to do as much as we can as quickly as possible.”
In an interview earlier that day, he told reporters that delaying a ban would allow time to drum up public support.
“Personally and professionally, I think we should eliminate it,” he says.
“But as a civil servant, I have enough experience with these issues to know we need a certain amount of debate first.”
Cullen said he believes Cushman may be acting tentatively on the pesticide issue because of past criticism that he is an environmental hardliner.
“I think his attitude’s been tempered by the non-smoking issue, but this is different, because people aren’t addicted to pesticides. I think the public is ready for a ban,” says Cullen.