The City of Burnaby has consented to Metro Vancouver's plan to end a program that monitored mosquitoes and killed larvae to prevent the spread of the West Nile virus.
Metro Vancouver asked that members of the regional district consent to repeal the program bylaw, which was established in 2005, as the virus has not been a significant threat in the region and provincial funding for the program has been cut. The virus can be carried by birds and spread by mosquitoes and can affect people and other mammals.
"It appears that this issue is not so dominant now that it requires us to have this continuing resource," Mayor Derek Corrigan said at the Jan. 14 council meeting.
Coun. Nick Volkow questioned the wording of the letter from Metro Vancouver, wondering if the program was being cancelled due to a lack of funding or because there is minimal virus activity in the region.
He pointed out that media reports still refer to the "creep of the West Nile virus into B.C."
Corrigan and Bob Moncur, the city manager, responded by saying the main point is that regional health authorities recommended in 2012 that municipalities stop monitoring the mosquito population and preemptively killing larvae specifically to prevent the spread of West Nile.
"Despite isolated incidences of West Nile - and again, they've not been in the Lower Mainland, they've been in the Okanagan and close to the U.S. border," Moncur said at the meeting. Volkow said the wording of the letter "muddies the waters" around the issue.
"The board decided to repeal Bylaw No. 1034 because provincial funding for local governments was discontinued in 2012," the letter stated. "In addition, both the Fraser Health authority and Vancouver Coastal Health recommended that no West Nile virus surveillance or preemptive larvaciding be carried out in 2012 in the Metro Vancouver municipalities they oversee. These decisions are based on the minimal West Nile virus activity observed in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia."
Human cases of the disease were first identified in B.C. in 2009, according to a previous press release from Fraser Health. Ministry of Health funding for the program ended because the health authorities recommended the preemptive actions were no longer necessary, according to Tasleem Juma, public affairs consultant for Fraser Health.
Certain parts of the area covered by Fraser Health, such as Fraser East, will continue to preemptively control the mosquito population, as a nuisance issue, she said.
