If you find an animal on your property that isn’t a dog, soon you may have no one at the town to call for help.
The town is embarking on a review of its bylaw services division, with bylaw staff suggesting 26 changes to how the department works. If the changes are approved, it could translate to $6,200 in savings for the town coffers, however it might mean scaling back services Collingwood’s bylaw department provides including major changes to how bylaw deals with wildlife and animal control.
“I really feel our residents look to us for those services – at least minimally we can help or assure them the best referrals to the services they need,” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery during a March 4 council meeting when the proposed changes were first presented to councillors.
The 26 recommendations are split into three categories: immediate changes, short-term changes to take place over the next two years and medium-term changes to be made within two to five years.
The review recommends an overall structural adjustment to ensure the appropriate management and oversight is in place.
There is a suggestion to redefine animal control to be just canine control, and to limit canine control to working hours only, with those two changes amounting to a savings of $13,000 alone. Also included is a suggestion to remove wildlife control completely from bylaw’s purview and to encourage residents to contact the ministry of natural resources and forestry (MNRF) to deal with issues with animals such as raccoons or coyotes.
Coun. Christopher Baines raised concerns whether MNRF staff would answer the phone if Collingwood residents call.
“It’s been the experience of many of my friends in other municipalities that due to cutbacks at the MNRF, they’ve had huge problems trying to get someone to come out,” said Baines.
The town’s acting manager of bylaw services Adam Harrod clarified that MNRF is the responsible body for wildlife management. He said that currently, town bylaw is responsible to deal with tempered raccoons, only on public property.
“In terms of a response... typically that would be left for a wildlife trapper or a contractor,” he said. “We’re using a contractor to deal with this.”
The review also suggests developing a town crossing guard policy, and shifting the focus of bylaw from the current complaint-based approach to an integrated model enforcement approach whereby bylaw officers would be empowered to deal with issues as they see them.
Jeffery noted the cost savings would likely be one-time only.
“When I think about what homeowners call and ask me about, they call about raccoons. I tell them to make sure it stays on the public roadway,” she said. “They expect that level of service.”
With canine control, Jeffery said issues with dogs don’t just happen during business hours.
“Where does the dog tag money go to offset those programs?” she asked.
Harrod said fees collected through animal licensing are put into the animal control budget, estimating tag revenue brings in between $20,000 and $30,000 per year.
“A lot of it goes toward pound facilities,” he said.
Jeffery spoke in support of moving away from a complaint-based approach to bylaw enforcement.
“It drives me wild that we have officers out there driving by infractions but because no one complains, we’re not enforcing it,” she said.
Harrod said a future staffing request will come forward as part of medium-term planning for a bylaw officer who would be mostly tasked with working proactively.
“Obviously, we would like to do that as a department, but we’re limited. We wanted to make sure we identified that as a future consideration,” said Harrod.
Coun. Deb Doherty said she’d like to see a public survey on the proposed changes before council makes decisions on what should change.
At the end of discussion, councillors voted unanimously in favour of deferring the matter to a council meeting in April. Mayor Yvonne Hamlin was absent from the meeting.
To read the full report including details on all the recommendations being made by staff, click here.
