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Chicken rules
In the Catholic faith, and I expect most religions, the calendar is pocked with celebrations and special days. In between, there is Ordinary Time, as in the past weekend was the Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time. Don’t fret; we’re not veering down a catechismal or liturgical discussion.
Instead, this week I want to talk chickens. Hens and roosters. Nothing feels more like Ordinary Time than a good old council debate about chickens. It seems there’s a crisis in the backyard.
At the end of 2020, Council agreed that it would permit County residents to keep chickens in their backyard whether they lived on Christian Street or Main Street. The chickens were already roosting in towns and villages, so Shire Hall figured it needed to step in and put order in the County’s backyards.
There was multilevel consultation, ads in the newspaper, a survey, and a comment board. Council had a vigorous discussion at the end of 2020. The result was 14 regulations packed into By-Law 234-2020.
Prince Edward County’s Backyard Hens By-law permits six hens in a settlement area. No chicks. No roosters. Just adult hens. Chicken coops and runs dimensions are specified. There are rules around chicken feed and waste. And absolutely no killing chickens in a backyard. Nor may a backyard hen keeper sell any of their products. And, my personal favourite, all backyard hens must be registered with the Ontario Chicken Marketing Board. Honest, that is what the County’s Backyard Hens By-law prescribes. (Those who control the means of production…)
The rules were broadly sensible. Mostly practical. And they were adopted. Order was restored.
But not for long. It turns out all is not well in the backyard chicken front. So far this year, the County has received three complaints. It seems some chickens may be running loose. More troublesome is the report of a rooster in a neighbour’s backyard. A ROOSTER!
By the time you read this column, Council will have reconvened on the matter. Shire Hall seems intent on getting tough on the rogue chicken keepers—putting teeth into its Backyard Hens By-law. Big time. Chicken law flouters are now liable for fines “of not more than $25,000 for a first offence”. A corporation that contravenes the Backyard Hens By-law is subject to a $50,000 fine. (Allow me to highlight the absurdity of the prospect of a County resident forming a limited liability corporation to keep six chickens in their backyard in Rossmore.)
A couple of things seem wrong here.
By far, the most egregious problem is that Shire Hall and Council feel compelled to dedicate time, energy and resources to such a trivial matter. And before readers pull out their pens to send me a trailer-load of angry emails and comments, I get that there are potential risks—avian flu, vermin, traffic etc. Yet, there are risks in every aspect of life. You took a risk getting out of bed this morning. Risk is all around us. The difference is that at some point over the past few decades, we decided it was government’s job to run ahead, imagine risk scenarios and then mitigate them with elaborate and dense blankets of regulation. Insurers had something to do with this. So did lawyers. And courts.
But the notion that our wee, frail local government could erase risk was always doomed. It may make it worse.
At some point, however, we might want to pause a moment and insist that the trigger for a new set of regulations be greater than ‘something bad might happen someday.’
Wandering chickens may not be the issue Shire Hall ought to concern itself. We have real, serious and compelling challenges in this community; housing; roads; waterworks; the natural environment that sustains everything that defines Prince Edward County. Add in perhaps managing a $71 million operating budget and a waterworks utility that will spend $6.3 million this year.
These issues require serious deliberation, lobbying, and trade-offs. Instead, Shire Hall occupies precious time talking chicken rules.
During the original chicken rules discussion in 2020, a council member asked the County manager to explain how by-law enforcement staff would manage cleanliness standards of backyard chickenry. After all, one person’s idea of clean won’t be the same as the next.
Marcia Wallace, Chief Administrative Officer, responded tentatively at first, then a bit more assertively.
“This is not the only area where we struggle with enforcement,” said Wallace. “It goes back to the conversation we’ve been having about the number of bylaws this County has.”
Wallace noted that the County’s enforcement resources were limited and implied they were overtaxed already.
“That is a good conversation Council should have, about whether this [new regulation] is realistic,” said Wallace.
Indeed. Wallace is entirely correct. Council may want a conversation about the County’s existing blanket of rules and regulations, rather than continually weaving new ones. Perhaps a project for Ordinary Time.
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