Yellowknife (Feb 06/04) - Coun. Doug Witty says it's time the city took another look at its mosquito control program.

The issue came to a head at last Monday's Priority, Policies and Budget Committee meeting.

Witty said if the city doesn't start putting more thought into its summer tourism potential, it'll be devoured by a cloud of mosquitoes.

"We have to consider what we're going to do for tourism in Yellowknife, post-diamonds," said Witty.

"I know of people who've camped at Fred Henne (Park) one night and then turned right around the next day and left because of the mosquitoes."

Witty suggested the city may want to look at new methods for mosquito control, which may including larvicides and mosquito traps, because the technology has changed considerably since the city drafted its policy 10 years ago.

Coun. Blake Lyons, however, said the city's spraying program back in the early 1990s proved a waste of money and time, and doubted anything on the market would prove better today.

"Winnipeg has had an abatement program since the income tax came in, and those bloodsuckers are worse than ever," said Lyons.

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly said Yellowknife will likely never escape the summer scourge of biting bugs.

"I think I read that mosquitoes can fly two kilometres in a day," said O'Reilly.

"You can spray as much as you want but in two days Yellowknife will be bug land again. There's no way around it."

Drain standing water

Yellowknife's current policy is to drain as much standing water after spring as possible. Greg Kehoe, public works director, said the pace is at about "one to two ponds a year."

Many municipalities in Canada have begun enacting "no-standing water policies," which includes bird baths and kiddie pools, to prevent the spread of West Nile virus said Loretta Bouwmeester, manager of legal services and corporate planning.

Coun. Wendy Bisaro said for the time being, she would like to see the city up its information campaign to let residents know about the dangers created by leaving standing water around.

"I think it would be valuable to put something in the newsletter each spring," she said.