"What are people supposed to do?": Back to the drawing board on chicken bylaw

Strict limits on rural chickens, butchering, and manure use bans prompts council to defer on chicken bylaw.

Last night, council was set to officially pass the new backyard chicken bylaw. However, the final version of the proposed regulations left many residents confused and frustrated.

Specifically some residents were upset that the bylaw was going to limit the culling, or butchering of chickens and would also forbid the use of manure for composting. Many rural residents were also shocked to see the finalized version encompass their properties and prevent them from raising chickens like they did before. While this bylaw was originally only supposed to expand chicken raising by applying to R1-R4 urban lots, the finalized bylaw now encompassed rural RR and even RU lots.

Previously, RU (Rural Zone) properties in West Nipissing could be used for all agricultural use without any exceptions or licencing requirements. But the new backyard chicken bylaw will apply to all RU properties measuring less than 10 acres. This represents many homesteaders in West Nipissing, who will now need to apply for licences and will be henceforth limited to 10 chickens. This limit is particularly severe on those 10 acre properties who previously raised meat chickens along with laying hens.

In the last few weeks, many concerned residents communicated these issues with councillors and luckily some members listened. The first to speak up was Councillor Georges Pharand who said he heard from residents who made valid points about the flaws in the bylaw.

He stated that the new bylaw will leave many people confused. Specifically in regard to what do to with a sick or injured chicken. By banning the culling of chickens, Pharand noted that chicken owners will be left stranded when a chicken reaches the end of their life. He pointed out that butchering a backyard chicken is not much different than deboning a store-bought chicken and that by banning this practice the municipality would be effectively banning the raising of chickens for meat. Pharand also objected to the provisions surrounding disposing of manure and deadstock. Pharand went on “we can’t bury it, we can’t incinerate, we can’t compost it and we can’t dispose of it in municipal waste”. He asked, “what are people supposed to do…?”.

Pharand reviewed the provincial guidelines on raising backyard chickens and informed council that there is no recommendations that butchering chickens or the use of manure for gardening be banned.

Along with councillor Kaitlynn Nicol, Pharand proposed that the bylaw be referred back to committee to address the numerous issues. Pharand warned council that “as it stands now, I would not be voting in favour of this bylaw until we can reconsider these points and deal with them in a more sensible way.”

Prior to voting on the bylaw, a motion to defer was presented and all councillors except for mayor Kathleen Thorne-Rochon and deputy mayor Jamie Restoule voted in favour.

The chicken bylaw will now be brought back to a future meeting to debate the provisions before drafting another version of it.

The West Nip Voice is a regular newsletter covering issues in West Nipissing and the surrounding area. Please consider becoming a subscriber.