MORRISBURG — A rodent issue has exposed issues with municipal outside vermin control bylaws -— there are not any.
Complaints were sent to South Dundas’ bylaw department about a home with rats infesting a yard in Morrisburg. Neighbours and adjacent property owners contacted South Dundas regarding the issue.
Chief Administrative Officer Ben de Haan confirmed there had been a complaint.
“Our investigation confirmed evidence of rodent activity on site,” de Haan told The Leader. “The photos and videos provided by neighbours have additionally confirmed the active presence of rodents. Our investigation did not find any contravention of existing bylaws, which limits our authority to place orders on the property.”
Typically, the presence of rodents or vermin is the result of other property standards issues, such as excessive garbage piled up on a property.
Current bylaws in place in South Dundas, and many other rural municipalities in Ontario, deal with just vermin like rats.
de Haan continued that South Dundas staff spoke to the property owners last week which he called “productive,” and that the resident was leaving bird seed out to feed birds and squirrels and said the resident was “receptive to changing this behaviour once staff identified that the feeding was attracting rodents to the area.”
The CAO said that a return visit on April 20, confirmed that the feeding has stopped.
“Unfortunately, the cessation of feeding does not mean that existing rodents will disappear immediately,” de Haan said.
Rat control issues have been an issue in recent years in other neighbouring municipalities.
In 2021 and 2022, several rat control issues in Kemptville occurred causing damage to property including to vehicle wiring.
North Grenville Township implemented a rebate program for property owners having to deal with vermin infestation, and amended bylaws around demolition of properties to require pest remediation before proceeding. There have been no active home demolition projects in the area where the Morrisburg rat issue occurred.
South Dundas council will be addressing the issue at their April 29 meeting said Mayor Jason Broad.
“I don’t want rats in the community,” he said. “This will be at council next week.”
Broad detailed that he had been observing the situation, and talked to neighbours about the rat situation since last week.
Current South Dundas bylaws give the municipality authority to clean up yards with trash, and inspect/deal with a situation inside a home. While larger Ontario municipalities have bylaws to handle vermin, South Dundas does not.
“Although complaints of this nature are relatively uncommon, we are motivated to see this situation addressed,” said de Haan.
“We intend to bring something forward to potentially give our bylaw enforcement officer the tools necessary to move forward with enforcement, if necessary.”
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