A day before the B.C. New Democratic Party planned to put forward a bill to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, Premier Christy Clark said she supports just such a ban.

"I've supported this for years now," she said in a scrum with reporters at the legislature. "We are going to do it."

Clark said she wants to engage with the NDP and the public, especially in rural B.C., to design legislation.

"The NDP are concerned about it, I'm concerned about it," she said. "I think as a new way of governing one of the things we can do is engage everyone who's interested in it, set aside all these partisan divides that pull us apart and find something that we can come together on, and I think this is that issue."

This morning the NDP announced it plans to re-introduce "legislation to ban toxic pesticides from everyday use" since the "BC Liberal government has failed to take any action to protect children from these cancer-causing substances."

"More than 70 per cent of British Columbians support the phase-out of cosmetic pesticides," the release quoted NDP leader Adrian Dix saying. "It's clear that this is another case where New Democrat values are mainstream values."

Clark said she would look at the NDP legislation and it might be a good way to start the process. She would like a bi-partisan committee to consider the issue and how to proceed, she said.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.