THUNDER BAY – A $5,000 public education campaign will be launched in an effort to eradicate the city’s skyrocketing rat population, but some councillors insist more needs to be done even though the cause for the spike remains largely unknown.
Thunder Bay city council on Monday night unanimously approved a recommendation made by administration to develop a strategy to make residents aware of what to do if experiencing a vermin outbreak, rather than explore efforts by the municipality to specifically tackle the rodents.
Coun. Joe Virdiramo, who successfully pushed for administration to report back next June rather than nearly a year later, said the increasing prevalence of rats is not a laughing matter.
“Just doing an education report in the amount of $5,000, I don’t believe that’s sufficient,” Virdiramo said. “I think that we need to take a look how we are controlling this population of rodents in our city. I’ve had many calls from people in my ward and other wards. I’ve had one individual in a matter of a day or two trap 13. That’s a whole litter.”
Coun. Andrew Foulds questioned whether the rising public concern about rats is the result of an actual rise in population or just more complaints.
“We’ve had bird feeders for a long time. We’ve had garbage bags and garbage stored in garbage bags for a long time. We’ve had rotting sheds with spaces underneath them for a long time,” Foulds said.
“Rats have been here for a long time. Do you think the public’s tolerance has decreased and that’s why we’re getting an increase?”
Lee Sieswerda, the environmental health manager of the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, said there might have been only a couple of rat complaints over the previous 25 years and they weren’t formally tracked separately from other rodents. In a 13-month period since September 2016, the health unit has reported 208 incidents.
“People that we’ve spoken to who have seen these rats are absolutely shocked,” Sieswerda said.
“A couple of people have said they saw a rat in the yard and thought it was a cat. They’re quite large. This isn’t something that’s been around and people have seen it and become accustomed to it. This is like a new sighting. They’re shocked by the size and speed of these rodents.”
The health unit earlier this year released a map of reported rat sightings, which showed hot spots in two south core neighbourhoods as well as in the north downtown core and in spots along Memorial Avenue.
“We’ve found them in Westfort, we’ve found then in Northwood. We’re starting to find them all over the city now,” Sieswerda said of neighbourhood infestations.
Sieswerda, who noted the health unit can issue orders, added the main public health risk posed by rats is the spread of salmonella or E. coli, which is why restaurants receive specific scrutiny.
Jason Sherband, the city’s manager of solid waste and recycling services, said formal abatement and extermination programs operated in other Ontario municipalities were examined, including ones in Ottawa and Kingston where baiting was used in the sanitary sewer system.
“Both of them had said they were doing something for the sake of doing something and there was no strong evidence to suggest it was decreasing the population,” Sherband said.
Sherband said the campaign will be a collaboration between the city and health unit and will include information about what attracts rats and what residents can do if there is an infestation on their property or in their neighbourhood.
“Could we always do more? Absolutely, but we looked at the resources we have internally, and we looked at the in-kind partnership with the health unit and figured this was a good starting point,” Sherband said.
