City council supported a parcel tax increase for an ongoing program to control what’s been referred to as one of the B.C. tree fruit industry’s most damaging and costly pests.
During a special meeting on Monday, April 29, Salmon Arm council gave three readings to a Sterile Insect Release (SIR) Program parcel tax amendment bylaw that adjusts the levy from $156.42 per acre in 2023 to $162.68, for a total of $5,864.61. Staff explained the program was launched in Salmon Arm in 2000 with the intent to eradicate the codling moth. The city forwards tax revenue collected for the program to the Columbia Shuswap Regional Distict.
The program, which operates in the Okanagan, Similkameen and Shuswap, involves the use of sterile codling moths, which are released at regular intervals to breed with wild moths. Their inability to produce offspring has resulted in a reduction to the wild codling moth population.
Staff also provided a table illustrating the annual levy paid from 2001 on, which was as high as $13,090 in 2007 and has, by and large, been declining since. Coun. Tim Lavery, who also serves as the SIR representative for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District board, explained the decreasing annual total reflects “the economics of the apple industry.” He said producers are getting out of apples as they have not been very profitable. The increase in the levy is to compensate for the reduction in acreage.
Asked about the program’s effectiveness, Lavery said it has been incredibly successful.
“It’s probably, if I can use the words… the apple of mitigation that other jurisdictions look at because if you don’t have that you spray, and then you spray again, and then you spray again, three, four, five times a year,” said Lavery. “It is very effective, it is becoming more costly and it is a subject of a lot of provincial discussion as how to bolster the apple industry in these times, at the same time as… preserving an approach that is environmentally friendly.”
According to the Okanagan-Kootenay Sterile Insect Release Program website, funding for the program is split between local property taxpayers (60 per cent), and commercial pome fruit growers (40 per cent).
“The success of SIR’s area-wide approach has meant that farmers require few to no pesticides to prevent codling moth damage. This creates major benefits for our fruit industry, our environment and the health of our communities,” reads the website.
Read more: Honour for region’s sterile insect program
Read more: Insect creating a stink this summer for North Okanagan-Shuswap farms and gardens