Public hearing will gather buzz on beekeeping

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This article was published 09/05/2017 (3103 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There will be a public hearing in the fall to gauge support for a proposal to allow hobby beekeeping throughout the city, including all residential areas.

Councillors on the property and development committee approved the move at its meeting Tuesday.

Coun. John Orlikow, chairman of the committee, said city hall wants to know how the public feels about the initiative and what type of controls, if any, should be placed on hobby beekeeping.

“We’ll allow the public to come in and weigh in on it,” he said, adding the committee will then decide what restrictions would be placed on beekeeping operations.

Currently, hobby or small-scale beekeeping is only allowed in the downtown area. Commercial apiaries are a conditional use, through a public-hearing process, in industrial and agricultural areas on the city’s fringe.

Any changes to beekeeping practices must still go to council for approval and any new rules for hobby beekeeping would not affect the existing rules for commercial apiaries.

The civic administration recommended hobby beekeeping be allowed as an accessory use throughout Winnipeg with only a permit, and without the need for public notices or hearings.

“We’ll look at (beekeeping) in all districts and gauge the public response to that,” Orlikow said. “We’ll look at will it be a conditional use (which would require a public hearing for each individual application), will there be buffer zones. That will all be part of the public-hearing process.”

Orlikow said following the public hearing, the committee will consider the concerns and then propose amendments to the draft bylaw stipulating restrictions, which will then be forwarded to council for consideration and approval.

Local beekeeper Christopher Kirouec said there are more than a dozen backyard bee hives operating illegally across the city now, adding the proposal will legitimize those operations and encourage others to get into it.

Kirouec doesn’t believe hobby beekeeping will be disruptive to people living in residential areas.

“With good beekeeping practices and a good framework for the rules, I absolutely believe that beekeeping can be a positive residential activity,” he said.

Kirouec said he believes the city should adopt a permit process, which would ensure people who get involved have taken a recognized beekeeping course, would regulate the size of the operations and include an inspection and enforcement component.

The backyard beekeeping initiative marks a complete reversal for the city on urban beekeeping. As late as 2013, a civic committee had banned hobby beekeeping in Winnipeg. In January 2016, council allowed small-scale beekeeping in the downtown area, following a lobbying effort by local beekeepers.

Orlikow said public perceptions towards bees and the importance they play in the food chain has shifted in the past few years, adding there’s been no outcry with downtown beekeeping.

“If we had problems with the downtown program, we probably wouldn’t be looking at this,” Orlikow said.

Bees don’t pose the same kind of threat as wasps, Kirouec said, adding he believes people won’t object to their neighbour keeping honey bees once they learn more about them.

“We had hives on top of a caboose at The Forks last year, several thousand bees at The Forks,” Kirouec said. “There was no negative feedback.”

Kirouec said he’s not surprised hobby beekeeping is being considered in Winnipeg, adding the change in attitude has happened right across North America.

“We’re riding a bit of a wave of goodwill due to the importance of bees and what’s gone on in other places.”

In a cross-jurisdictional review, the administration found only Winnipeg and Ottawa-Gatineau prohibit urban beekeeping through zoning. In most Canadian cities, backyard beekeeping is either permitted or not even regulated by the municipality.

Along with the public hearing, the administration is recommending that if hobby beekeeping is permitted, the city should alter its mosquito fogging buffer zone policies as they affect beekeeping operations. Right now, there are 300-metre buffer zones around registered beekeeping operations, but staff are recommending the buffer zones be reduced to 90 metres — the same as residential buffer zones.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca