CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Gas Leaf Blower Ban Debate In Eastbrook

In Eastbrook, autumn is announced less by rustling leaves than by the whine of the machines chasing them. Last week, councillors voted 6–3 to send a draft bylaw to public consultation. It would prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers for homeowners by 2028 and for commercial landscapers in 2029, and residents trading in a gas model would receive a $100 rebate toward a battery-powered one.

Councillor Amrit Dhaliwal, who introduced the motion, frames the ban as a question of health as much as tranquillity. Most blowers run on two-stroke engines, which burn oil with the gasoline. By some estimates, an hour of commercial blowing generates as much smog-forming pollution as driving a thousand kilometres, and the low rumble penetrates walls as no rake could.

Lorraine Petrovic, a night-shift nurse beside a row of townhouses, now sleeps in her basement. “Crews arrive at eight in the morning, just as I’m drifting off,” she sighs, “sometimes running three or four blowers at once.”

Greg Szabo, whose landscaping company employs fourteen people, calls the bylaw well-intentioned but impractical. Battery models his crews tested last fall struggled with wet leaves and died within two hours. “A full day would require roughly forty spare batteries at about $400 apiece,” he calculates, “and our margins can’t quietly swallow that.” He would rather restrict operating hours, as several other municipalities have done.

Councillor Dale Hutchins, who voted against the motion, doubts a prohibition is enforceable when bylaw officers already field more complaints than they can handle. “Are we really going to send them to check what engine someone is running on a Sunday afternoon?” Education and time limits, he reckons, would achieve most of the benefit for a fraction of the cost.

For Marcus Bell of the Eastbrook Naturalists’ Club, the debate misses a more fundamental problem. Whatever powers the machine, clearing every last leaf deprives butterflies, moths and bees of the litter in which they spend the winter, and bagging it for the landfill discards free fertilizer too. His remedy is disarmingly simple: rake leaves off the lawn and into garden beds, where they can decompose.

Written submissions will be accepted until November 30.

Working from home on a street full of landscaping crews, I welcome last week’s vote: council has finally 6. Choose…settled the matter for goodgrasped what is at stakesided with the landscapersshelved the rebate. Mr. Szabo’s arithmetic on 7. Choose…his payroll of fourteenthe $100 rebatetwo-hour run timesthe bill for spare batteries strikes me as overstated, since he assumes a crew must convert everything in a single season. Other industries have adapted to environmental rules, so why should landscapers be 8. Choose…treated any differentlyconsulted before the voteheld to the same standardblamed for the noise? Councillor Hutchins predicts that bylaw officers will be 9. Choose…too lenient with commercial crewsreluctant to fine their neighboursstretched too thinquick to target homeowners, yet most people obey a law once it exists; nobody needs to inspect every garage. Still, the most persuasive voice belongs to 10. Choose…Marcus BellGreg SzaboDale HutchinsAmrit Dhaliwal, for whom the engine was never the real issue. My garden, left untidy this fall, has never had so many birds.