Chatham-Kent is moving forward with a two-year backyard chicken pilot program, but some feathers got ruffled before it was approved by municipal council.
Chatham-Kent is moving forward with a two-year backyard chicken pilot program, but some feathers got ruffled before it was approved by municipal council.
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Backyard chickens can be kept in rural residential and village residential areas, but not in urban areas of Chatham and Wallaceburg. Chickens also are prohibited from being kept in Erieau, due to its location as a tourist spot.
Early in the discussion during Monday’s council meeting to approve the chicken bylaw, an unsuccessful motion was made by South Kent Coun. Ryan Doyle to reduce the fees proposed by administration.
Doyle wanted the initial $425 permit fee reduced to $200 and the $125 renewal fee dropped to $50.
Fellow South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci asked if the cost of reducing fees would be passed on to the taxpayer.
Municipal clerk Judy Smith said cost recovery has been the goal with anything to do with business licensing.
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“If we reduce it down to $200 and $50 for renewal, we would not be having cost recovery and the general tax base would have to make up the difference,” she said.
Cathy Hoffman, general manager of corporate services, also bonded council if fees are reduced during the pilot period “it will be very difficult on the other side of this to raise the fees to the difference of the amount that we’re talking about now for cost recovery.”
Smith acknowledged the fees are a “guesstimate” based on the projected uptake of the program.
Doyle said there are a lot of things done in Chatham-Kent where the cost is not fully recovered by the fees and the tax base pays for it.
“Because this is an initial pilot project and the whole point of this is so people can have some chickens and save some money at home, I don’t want to price people out from having chickens at home if they can’t afford these fees ,” he said.
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Doyle believes it would be better to have lower fees to see how many people will want to participate in the pilot project.
However, some councilors spoke up against reducing the fees recommended by administration.
South Kent Coun. Trevor Thompson asked Doyle how he came up with the reduced $200 and $50 fees.
“They seemed reasonable,” Doyle said.
He doesn’t believe the current fees would save money for those participating in the project.
“There’s a lot of programs we do where the public is paying the bill for most of it,” Doyle said. “I’d rather the people who want to use the program, use the program and we’ll figure it out in two years what the actual numbers are and we go from there.”
Thompson retorted: “I bristle at the idea that because arenas aren’t fully cost recovery that means that chickens don’t have to be either.”
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He added it is not fair to push the cost of the program onto ratepayers who don’t have chickens.
“I’m gobsmacked by this,” said Chatham Coun. Marjorie Crew.
She pointed out Doyle, who made a successful motion last month to have several municipal departments find a 7.5 per cent reduction in their budget, is now “asking taxpayers to pick up the bill for people who want to have chickens.”
Crew said she supports the pilot project if it is done on a cost-recovery basis.
Chatham Coun. Brock McGregor said, “I’m fine to support this program, if it’s cost recovery.
“But, the second we’re going to ask people to pay for a program they are barred from accessing doesn’t make good policy,” he added.
Doyle received support from North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville, who heard from people at a public meeting in Dresden on the issue, that a big concern was the fees.
She believes the fees will be a “hindrance to the people who want to utilize this.”
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