Burnaby bans the sale of fireworks

Burnaby has become the latest municipality to ban the sale of fireworks.

By adopting the sales ban Monday night at council, Burnaby will be joining just about every other municipality in Metro Vancouver. The only place left to buy fireworks without a permit at Halloween is Port Moody.

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Amanda Cameron of the Canadian National Fireworks Association said these kinds of laws only serve to drive people underground.

“What the underground market typically provides is illegal products and lack of consumer education, so the consumers buying the fireworks are going to get dangerous, unregulated products that tend to cause more issues.”

But a look at the data shows that hasn’t happened. The fire department in Surrey, where a sales ban was implemented in 2005, said the drop in calls associated with fireworks has been dramatic.

“We had a high of 40 fires in Halloween 2004,” Surrey Fire Department Asst. Chief Steve Robinson said. “Since we’ve enacted the bylaw in 2005 we’ve gone down to an average of about three fires. Last year we were down to one.”

There will still be fireworks at Halloween but clamping down on the really dangerous displays is what the City of Burnaby is looking to achieve.

– With files from Aaron McArthur