GUELPH\ERAMOSA — The township is going ahead with its backyard chicken bylaw despite biohazard concerns from some local groups.
Created to regulate domestic poultry while protecting adjacent properties, the new bylaw will allow and regulate backyard domestic poultry coops on rural residential properties.
Over a year in the making, the bylaw requires properties to be one-acre minimum and limits the coop size and number of hens, ducks, geese and turkeys one could keep on-site.
Before the bylaw, hens were considered livestock and only permitted on agriculturally zoned properties two acres or larger. This also pertained to other types of livestock like turkeys, ducks, geese and pigeons.
While all councillors were supportive of the bylaw during the meeting, Wellington Federation of Agriculture (WFA) president Barclay Napp submitted a letter sharing biosecurity concerns and recommending a deferral followed by a presentation from provincial poultry specialist Al Dam with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness.
If approved, the WFA recommended mandating all owners take a course on raising backyard chickens from the Poultry Industry Council before birds are acquired, township township-conducted on-site inspections to confirm bird welfare and requiring owners to register their birds with the Chicken Farmers of Ontario.
It also recommended the bylaw begin as a pilot project to allow the township to see if it is "a good fit" and leave room for any areas of need to be identified.
"With a move to local food and homesteading, backyard poultry is growing in popularity...this poses a significant public health risk of bacterial and protozoa transmission," said Napp, in the letter. "It is a very contentious and divisive issue for birds of any kind to be kept in a backyard or outside due to the concerns of biosecurity for the commercial poultry industry. If there was no risk to people and commercial flocks, we would not be having this discussion."
The township also received comments from Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health commending the bylaw's biosecurity protocols and water protections before recommending the township create a registration system with information on flock size and location.
According to environmental health specialist for WDG Public Health Tyler Black, not having information on individual flocks remains "a key gap" identified by Public Health Ontario, which makes it difficult to share educational resources and alerts or trace cases of Salmonella, Campylobacter and other infectious diseases.
"The Region of Waterloo requires registration with yearly renewal. A similar registry would allow a venue for knowledge sharing during outbreaks, also assisting with outbreak response and investigation," said Black, in the letter.
Commenting on the importance of the WFA and WDG Public Health's feedback, County planner Meagan Ferris said many of their comments can't be applied to a zoning bylaw amendment but were noted by staff for future reference.
Addressing resident comments from a public meeting in October, Ferris said she's still of the opinion that a one-acre minimum is appropriate because it provides more flexibility than the existing bylaw and aligns with the minimum lot sizes for agriculture and rural residential zones.
"The one acre provides a little bit more flexibility for situating the structure in the future and locating manure storage and will provide opportunity, in theory, to help mitigate any potential real or perceived off-site impacts by introducing this use," said Ferris.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
