Welland to track calls about rats
No plans to create fund to help with homeowner problems
While St. Catharines and Niagara Falls rank among the 25 ‘rattiest’ cities in Ontario, the rodents aren’t a major issue in Welland, city council heard Tuesday.
“We’re very lucky we didn’t make the list,” said Ali Khan, Welland’s bylaw supervisor.
Khan was before council with John Burnett, acting manager of environmental health with Niagara Region Public Health, to talk about the rat/rodent population. Khan also had a report on the agenda about the rat/rodent issue.
He said in the past two years, out of 3,000 calls to the bylaw office only 48 were related to investigations about rats in the city.
And though the city never recorded calls related to rats outside of investigations, it will do so in the future council heard.
Khan said Windsor, ranked one of the ‘rattiest’ cities, has had a rat control program in its budget of $120,000 for a number of years. Niagara Falls has a similar program with a $50,000 budget and St. Catharines passed a pilot project at its council meeting Tuesday.
The programs see homeowners get rebates for the cost of hiring professional pest control and wildlife removal company.
Khan said he spoke with staff in Windsor and they told him the rat population numbers there are steady and they haven’t seen any improvement.
Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio asked if putting money toward a similar program in Welland would be a step in the right direction.
“It would be up to council to make that decision, but based on Windsor’s record I don’t think it would be a good idea at this stage,” said Khan.
Later in the meeting, Chiocchio asked the city to look at possibly including a rat control program in its 2019 budget. He asked Burnett if the Region contributed anything to the ratcontrol programs.
Burnett said no and that the Region is focused on risk and disease control. The Region, he said, has an education component and lets residents across Niagara know how they can rodent-proof their homes and work to prevent rat infestations by keeping their yards clean.
Welland also educates homeowners on what to do if rats are found in their homes and on their property, and how to keep their property clean to prevent the rodents from becoming an issue. The information is passed out by bylaw officers and will be made prominent on the city’s website.
“In spite of the increase in rats over the last few years, there have been no illnesses or disease. Rats aren’t pleasant to have around, but they’re not causing any outbreaks,” Burnett said.
Khan said an increase in rats can be attributed to the mild winters over the past couple of years and their nests being dis-
turbed by construction.
Other councillors asked what could be done if homeowners weren’t cleaning up their properties and neighbouring properties were seeing rats on their land and in their homes. Khan said the city would investigate and while it could issue a fine to a homeowner that doesn’t clean up their property, it would only be used as a last resort.
“Our success rate is good when we issue orders to clean up,” he said.