Editor: I attended the Langley Township council regular meeting on Monday, April 8. The propane cannon task force submitted their presentation to council. Nowhere in their proposal was there any reference to cannon sound levels.
The B.C. Supreme Court, in the case Suzuki vs. Munroe in 2009, made it clear to local governments that with no sound level (in decibels) in a noise bylaw renders it unenforceable.
The Township should include a sound level in any cannon noise by-law to make it safe for neighbouring farmers, especially horse farms.
If the minister of agriculture refuses to accept a reasonable sound level in our farm noise bylaw, then we know Premier Christy Clark’s on-air declaration that “further regulations are a matter for Langley Township, not the provincial government” was just pie in the political sky.
J. Beauman,
Langley
Editor’s note— The court case the reader refers to can be found at http://canlii.ca/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2009/2009bcsc1403/2009bcsc1403.html