THUNDER BAY – The coordinator of the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy isn’t surprised city council rejected the initiative she led that would have allowed for up to six chickens to be cooped in residential back yards.
Kendal Donahue is just disappointed.
Council defeated the proposed backyard chicken bylaw on Monday in a decisive 8-4 vote.
The move ends two years of Donahue’s work with a movement of mostly young families who were calling for hens to be reconsidered as part of urban agricultural renewal.
“I think it’s maybe not surprising in that there was a lot of misinformation around backyard chickens,” she said, pointing to health concerns among some councillors and members of the public.
“Certainly, this is something that we were able to show, based on the experiences of other cities as well as research and talking with the health unit, that this is something that wouldn’t play out here very likely.”
Backyard chickens have been the most publicly discussed platform among the food strategy’s 100 recommendations but Donahue said removing them won’t impact the overall strategy.
Citing the Volunteer Pool farm as an outlet for continuing education and outreach on urban agriculture, Donahue insisted the movement was more of a setback than a failure.
She couldn’t commit to leading the charge if the backyard chicken issue is presented to future councils but she believes the movement will continue to grow across North America.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if chickens did come back in the future,” she said.
“I think council did vote fairly resoundingly. They felt the city was not ready for at this time, despite it being very much in line with its own corporate strategic plan around urban agriculture, numerous strategies it has endorsed such as the food strategy, the EarthCare community environmental plan, as well as the climate change strategy.”
