Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Any momentum Greater Napanee council had towards re-vamping its backyard poultry by-laws to allow hens in the urban part of town came to a screeching halt at their April 11 meeting.
Citing concerns over the avian flu, councillor Mike Schenk put forward a successful motion to leave the by-law as is with the intent to revisit it this coming autumn. That means for at least the next three months residents in the urban part of town will be unable to keep a flock of backyard chickens.
Last month council directed staff to take another look at the by-law following a deputation from a resident asking for the by-law to be revised and chickens to be allowed in urban settings. Tuesday’s meeting saw another deputation in support of the matter, this from resident Natasha Augustine.
“I think the backyard hen business is really important to a lot of people,” Augustine told council. “It came up last August and got put aside, which was understandable with council wrapping up. I just want to put my two cents in and hopefully council has time to consider by-laws this time around falling in line with everybody else in our area.”
Schenk was originally in support of the idea but did a complete 180 after talking to a contact at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, as well as fellow egg farmers.
“Because of the avian flu crisis that we currently have globally, and they are coming up with a vaccine here hopefully soon out west, and BC was hit really hard, the transmissibility of chickens or the avian flu going into humans, there is a great concern of that,” said Schenk. “At this time it’s a hard no right now for any backyard hens until we have a policy or they have a vaccine in place that we can do this on the safety side.”
Schenk didn’t completely close the door on the idea in the future.
“I’m in favour of having some backyard poultry and letting everybody have that back to the farm and teaching your kids and supplying eggs and poultry,” he added. “But with the concern I have with avian flu, the problem with Prince Edward County you had a flock out of Pennsylvania, there was major problems them. The Canadian Food and Inspection Agency has already said basically every wild fowl that’s flying, there’s avian flu in it and it’s a grave concern in the poultry industry right now.”
Deputy mayor Brian Calver shared the same concerns.
“I have to echo what councillor Schenk says,” said Calver. “Just the other day municipalities around York Region, Canada are warning residents to take action after hundreds of birds were found infected with the flu. They’re recommending dogs should be kept on their leashes and all cats kept indoors and birdbaths should be removed. This is not a good idea or a good time to bring in a backyard chicken by-law. I think we should stick with our current by-law we have in place until this straightens up. There has been cases already where it has transferred into mammals and killed them. There was a case I believe in Chile where it’s transferred into a human and killed them. This isn’t something to be taken lightly. Unfortunately at this time I wouldn’t even remotely support it.”
-Council approved taking $64,040 from the town’s utility reserve fund to be put towards the purchase of a reservoir liner replacement to be used to at the water treatment plant located next to the Napanee Golf and Country Club.
The upgrade would allow the town to store up to 11 hours worth of water in the event of an emergency, which is significantly longer than what is currently possible at that plant.
-In another sure sign that spring has arrive, council has again approved the Loaf N’ Ale restaurant’s request to install an outdoor patio that will extend into Dundas Street. The patio, which takes the space of a pair of parking spots downtown, will be in place from May 1 to Sept. 30.