This is in response to the Follow Up Report on the UrbanHensTO Backyard
Hens Pilot Program by Toronto Municipal Licensing and Standards for the Economic and Community Development Committee meeting on April 25, 2023.
p3 EQUITY IMPACT
Staff raises "equity" issues against backyard hens. I don't recall MLS being concerned about "equity" when they successfully advocated for raising the fine for the bylaw 489 Turfgrass and Prohibited Plants bylaw from $5K to $100K. By this equity logic not everyone can afford a car so no one should own a car. Since some people earn the minimum wage, the equity MLS is advocating means that everyone should earn the minimum wage. If MLS executives took the minimum wage - which is what they should be earning for producing this drivel, that would easily free up $500K to finance the program.
p10 Program requirements, user fees, and staff resources
How about using volunteers to educate, inspect and monitor urban hen keepers, with MLS only getting involved when there is a formal complaint?
p15 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)
I don’t recall MLS being particularly concerned about the noise and particulate pollution from gas powered leaf blowers so until there is more evidence to the contrary I assume MLS is focusing on HPAI primarily as a means to block backyard hens.
I'm hard pressed to think of any better bio-security for the hens than
small dispersed flocks. HPAI is similar to SARS-CoV-2 in that there are wild animal reservoirs. Zero COVID-19 has failed everywhere. MLS provides no evidence that it is any more possible to eradicate HPAI than it has been to eradicate SARS-CoV-2. With 8 cases of human HPAI infection reported world-wide since December 2021 and no evidence of sustained human to human transmission HPAI is not currently a major risk for the community at large.
Urban Agriculture
I'm from the school of thought that says we will have less energy in the future and therefore be less able to transport food long distances and therefore HAVE to grow it more locally. I don't have hens myself, but I would certainly like to have people nearby that know how to care for them. MLS’s conception of bio-security is like using lockdowns to stop SARS-CoV-2, which didn’t work. We have to co-exist with viruses. There has to be a trade-off between bio-security and eating. Something is wrong about the whole framing of this debate. Since when is MLS the primary mover in economic development? How about considering backyard hens as part of the response to the climate emergency?
Updated 2023-04-24
Took the subway today. Noticed pigeons, even underground at track level, presumably wild and potentially carrying HPAI. Where’s the bio-security plan for the TTC? Are these pigeons being tested? I’m near sighted but I don’t think the TTC has it’s pigeons properly banded. This has been going on for years. Where are the inspections? Is the TTC set up to properly report HPAI in it’s pigeons? Does the TTC have proper protocols in place to handle dead pigeons? Where are the warnings to passengers? MLS, pick on somebody your own size and leave the backyard hens alone!
Updated 2023-04-25
Backyard hen support from mayoral candidate Sarah Climenhaga