Councillors say NO to backyard chickens

By Casandra Turnbull

After 10 months of discussion with passionate pleas on both sides of the argument, in a narrow 6-5 margin, members of the planning committee voted against allowing backyard chickens in the County of Brant

The final decision, which must be ratified by council, came during Tuesday night’s Planning and Development committee meeting, however, the topic started in May of last year when a delegation to the administration and Operations Committee encouraged councillors to ask staff to prepare options to permit chickens in residential areas for consideration Staff brought four possible options to the Agricultural Advisory Committee in October and those options were also presented to the Planning and Development Committee in November. Of the options presented, councillors directed staff to proceed with option number three, which would allow chickens in all residential areas, subject to the review of further information and regulations.

Staff was set to draft the new ‘Backyard Hen By-Law,’ which would see an amendment to the county’s existing Animal Control By-Law and Comprehensive Zoning By-Law, but before completing that draft, staff wanted to provide councillors with a project update, more regulation information, suggested limitations and the plan for a public engagement overview.

Councillors voted against a new Backyard Hen By-law on Tuesday, but public consultation is still open until March 29th. You can share your opinion on the EnageBrant website.

Of the top concern from County staff was the risk chickens pose to the town’s municipal drinking water sources, particularly the source water protection areas, wellhead protection areas and areas with high Nitrate levels. The Risk Management Official for the County of Brant suggested chickens should be prohibited in these areas Among the prohibited areas would be north end of Paris to protect the Gilbert well head County Staff consulted the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MOECP) on the protection of private drinking water sources in non-urban residential areas. There were pages of staff recommended limitations, which you can read online here.

In the end, councillors Jennifer Kyle, John MacAlpine, Lukas Oakley, Steve Howes and Christine Garneau all voted in favour of the Backyard Hen By-Law. Councillors John Bell, John Peirce, Robert Chambers, David Miller, Brian Coleman and Mayor David Bailey all voted against the By-Law. Despite the official ‘no’ from councillors the decision must be ratified by council following a public engagement campaign. You can have your say through the County’s EngageBrant website here, and you can watch Tuesday’s meeting online here Public engagement will close on March 29th .