City hopes pamphlets and websites will hold off rat problem until 2017

For the third time in less than six months, city staff have recommended a program to provide city-funded rodent removal be cancelled, and for the third time council has asked for options to keep it going.

City staff penned a report in May asking council to cancel the program, a motion that was defeated in open council.

At that meeting, city staff were instructed to come back to council with a solution other than cancelling the program.

When the issue came up again during a July meeting of council, city staff offered more options, but once again recommended cancelling the program.

City council defeated the motion and instructed city staff to once again report on the cost of maintaining existing levels of rat-abatement service.

During Monday’s meeting, councillors were set to vote on a motion to allow the winning proponent of a request for proposal (RFP) process — Abell Pest Control — to begin offering rat-removal services for city residents at a cost to the city of $36,465 a year, or choose an option to cancel the program altogether. 

Confusion had arisen because the starting date set on the RFP was October 1, but council had no intention of incurring additional costs for the last three months of the year — wanting to start the new program entirely within the upcoming 2017 budget. 

The currently-operating project has run out of funding for the year and city council are hoping to combat the rat problem with public education, including web sites and pamphlets.

It would have cost the city about $9,000 to contract pest removal for the remaining three months of 2016.

With only about $30,000 remains in the city’s ‘contingency unforeseen’ funds, an extension was not seriously considered. 

The matter has once again been sent back to staff to clear up the date discrepency.

No other municipality in Ontario funds a rat abatement program, council was told by Larry Girardi, Deputy CAO Public Works and Engineering Services department.

“If we were to do it, we would be the only one of 107 municipalities throughout the entire province of Ontario providing a rat abatement program?” Asked Ross Romano, councillor for Ward 6.

“That’s correct,” replied Girardi.

In recent years, the city has budgeted $20,000 a year toward the rat abatement project on privately-owned residential properties, but the previous contract and extensions had run out.

Romano said there is a misconception about what kinds of properties can have rats.

“They don’t just come from dirty yards. They come from other areas, too. They come from buildings being torn down, developments occurring — it makes the rats relocate,” said Romano.