October 14, 2026·AI Assisted

Adjust the proposed rules

The numbers below update as you change these. Defaults match Kingston and Carleton Place, the two closest working precedents.

Backyard Hens in Ottawa: A Proposal to Amend By-law 2003-77

Ottawa should permit up to 6 licensed laying hens on residential lots, starting with a two-year pilot. Ottawa is now the largest Canadian city with an outright urban ban, and the ban has not stopped residents from keeping hens; it has only stopped the City from regulating them.

Chicken calls to Bylaw: 41–93 / yr; 2018 to 2023, all from unregulated keepers
Canadian cities that permit hens: 16 of 25; Toronto jurisdictional scan, 2022
Toronto pilot complaints: 5 in 5 yrs; 102 registered households

Where Ottawa stands

Chickens are livestock under the Animal Care and Control By-law (2003-77) and are permitted only where the zoning by-law lists agriculture as a permitted use. A zoning amendment allows up to 10 hens, no roosters, on Rural Residential lots of at least 0.8 hectares. Everywhere else, including Stittsville, Kanata, Nepean and Orléans, keeping hens is an offence, and enforcement is complaint-driven (CTV Ottawa, 2021).

The ban does not deter. Bylaw logged 46 chicken calls in 2018, 39 in 2019, 73 in 2020 and 93 by late 2021, then 41 complaints in 2021, 55 in 2022 and 39 by October 2023 (Capital Current). Bylaw director Roger Chapman lists the City's reasons for the ban as noise, odour, waste, predators and vermin, heat-lamp fire risk, disease, and the cost of rescuing stray birds. Every one of those has a bylaw clause answering it somewhere in Canada.

Nothing has moved because no councillor has sponsored it. In 2024 Coun. Riley Brockington said hens were not a council priority and had not been raised by any member of council (CTV Ottawa, 2024). Three petitions exist; the most recent, for a pilot in Manordale, has 441 signatures. The 26 October 2026 election resets the term and is the window to put this in front of a new council.

Residents already keeping hens

There is no registry, so the public record is enforcement cases and petitions. The keepers who have gone on record are a cross-section of the city, not a fringe.

Who	Where	What happened
Crystal Lurk	Orléans	Kept hens producing about seven eggs a day, shared with neighbours; ordered to rehome them after a complaint in November 2023.
Dr. Paul Holtom	Stittsville	94-year-old Second World War veteran built a coop for six hens; Bylaw forced their removal.
Joanne Cooney	Rural Ottawa	Keeps two free-range hens without a permit; says many residents keep them quietly and asks Council to license hens like dogs.
Violette Ferguson	Orléans area	At 11, wrote to the mayor and started a petition; Coun. Brockington called it a good idea but not a council priority.
Brittany Lauzon	Manordale, Nepean	Started a February 2025 petition for a 4 to 6 hen pilot in Manordale; 441 signatures.
Brigitte Pellerin	Ottawa	Citizen columnist; argued in 2019 that Ottawa should copy Gatineau's rules.
Earlier petitioners	Ottawa	Two older change.org petitions to amend section 74(1) of By-law 2003-77, plus an ipetitions campaign.

Enforcement lands on the visible and otherwise compliant, families and seniors, while the loose-chicken calls that cost Bylaw money come from keepers no one can identify. The advocates' ask has been the same for a decade: licence hens the way the City licenses dogs. This proposal formalizes that.

What other cities do

Sixteen of 25 cities in Toronto's 2022 jurisdictional scan permit hens; fewer than 1% of households register where it is legal, and Vancouver's hen complaints are about 1% of animal-services calls (Toronto staff report, 2022). The rules converge on one template: 4 to 6 hens, no roosters, rear yard only, 1.2 to 2 m setbacks, no sales, no home slaughter, a modest annual fee.

City	Status	Max hens	Licence	Setbacks	Since
Kingston, ON	Allowed	6	$31/yr; neighbour notification	1.2 m lot lines; 3 m from windows; 15 m from schools	2011
Carleton Place, ON	Allowed	6	$100 + $30/yr	1.2 m lot lines; 3 m from windows; lot over 3,500 sq ft	2021
Smiths Falls, ON	Pilot, permanent July 2026	6	None	1.2 m lot lines; 3 m from windows	2025
Gatineau, QC	Allowed	5	$30/yr	2 m from neighbour; lot 350 m² or more	2016 pilot, 2019 permanent
Kitchener, ON	Allowed	4	$58 once + inspection	1.2 m rear; 2.5 m side	2016
Waterloo, ON	Allowed	4	$28/yr	1.5 m lot lines	2021
Brampton, ON	Allowed	2 (more by licence)	Application	8 m from other dwellings; 2 m lot lines	2023
Guelph, ON	Allowed	10	Registration	Per zoning	2016
Vancouver, BC	Allowed	4	Free registry	Per zoning and hen guidelines	2010
Victoria, BC	Allowed	15	None	Manure 3 m or more from lot line	2011
Edmonton, AB	Allowed	3–6	Licence + course	0.9 m side; 0.6 m rear; 6 ft fence	2014 pilot, uncapped 2019
Calgary, AB	Allowed	2–4	$72/yr + course	Eaves 0.6 m or more from lot line	2022 pilot, uncapped 2023
Halifax, NS	Allowed (zoning)	10 in centre	Voluntary registry	Per land-use by-law	2021
Montréal, QC	Banned; 4 boroughs opt in	2–5	Registration	0.6–1.5 m lot lines; 3 m from windows	Rosemont 2021
Toronto, ON	Pilot ended May 2023	was 4	was $151, $34 renewal	n/a	2018–2023
Ottawa, ON	Banned in urban zones	10 on rural lots of 0.8 ha+	n/a	n/a	—

The outcomes worth putting in front of Council:

Toronto had 102 registered households and 5 service requests in five years, against 594 chicken calls at unregistered addresses. The pilot ended over avian flu, vet access and a projected $494K per year city-wide cost, not over nuisance (staff report, 2023).
Gatineau had 136 keepers and 15 poultry complaints in 2018, then loosened the rules in 2019: cap 3 to 5, lot minimum 450 to 350 m², permit cap removed (Bulletin d'Aylmer).
Kingston after nine years: 23 active permits, complaints minimal and mostly about unpermitted keepers (Kingstonist).
Carleton Place's mayor reports no predator incidents since 2021, but warns that Ottawa's density needs different setback rules than a small town.
Calgary, Edmonton and Smiths Falls all started as capped pilots and then removed the caps.

Concerns, and the clause that answers each

The two concerns that actually ended a program (Toronto) were avian influenza and administration cost. The proposal answers those first.

Concern	Evidence	How it is handled
Avian influenza	1,751 suspect or confirmed cases across Canada by spring 2023, almost all commercial or wild; none reported in Toronto's registered flocks.	Covered run, no contact with wild waterfowl, CFIA reporting; licence suspended inside any CFIA control zone (Calgary, Edmonton).
Administration cost	Toronto estimated $494K a year for a city-wide program; fewer than 1% of households enrol where legal.	Fee-funded licence ($30 to $75 in Kingston, Gatineau, Calgary); online self-registration; complaint-based inspection only (Smiths Falls).
Veterinary access	No Ottawa vets see chickens, per a local sanctuary; Toronto cited the same gap.	Keeper names a vet on the application; hen-care course required (Edmonton, Calgary); City lists Ottawa Valley practices that will see poultry.
Noise	Hens are quiet; roosters are the problem, and they are already banned city-wide.	Hens at least 4 months old at acquisition so sex is known (Kingston, Vancouver).
Odour and waste	Four to six hens produce less waste than one large dog.	Manure in a sealed container, removed weekly; no composting within 3 m of a lot line (Victoria).
Predators and vermin	Carleton Place: no predator incidents since 2021. Rats follow spilled feed, not hens.	Feed in rodent-proof containers; hardware-cloth coop; hens locked in at night; rear yard only.
Fire	Heat lamps in bedding are a real winter risk.	Heat lamps prohibited; insulated coop required; cold-hardy breeds (Smiths Falls: draft-proof, dry, insulated).
Stray and abandoned birds	Gatineau 2018: three stray-hen transports, $300 total.	Leg band tied to the licence; keeper pays impound; end-of-lay surrender to a vet, rescue or farm only.
Animal welfare	Hens lay for two to three years and live eight or more.	Minimum coop and run area per hen; no cages; sanctuary partnership for surrenders.
Density and lot size	Ottawa has 20-foot townhouse lots and one-acre rural lots; Carleton Place's mayor flagged this.	Tiered caps by lot size (Halifax, Gatineau); 1.2 m line and 3 m window setbacks; single, semi and townhouse only in phase one.
Egg sales and slaughter	Zoonotic risk if unregulated.	No sales, no on-site slaughter (nearly universal).
Neighbour conflict	Kingston: most complaints come from unpermitted keepers.	Neighbour notification at first application (Kingston); written consent to shorten a side setback (Kitchener).

One honest caveat: Ottawa's chicken calls (41 to 93 a year) exceed Kingston's or Toronto's registered-flock figures because unregulated keepers skip the coop standards that prevent escapes. A permit regime should reduce those calls, but the pilot has to measure that rather than assume it.

Proposed rules

Amend By-law 2003-77 to add a Backyard Hens section tracking Kingston (15 years in operation) and Carleton Place (a precedent councillors can drive to), with Calgary's avian-flu clause added.

Element	Proposed rule
Where	Rear yards of single-detached, semi-detached and townhouse lots in residential zones; not multi-unit buildings; not front or side yards
How many	2 to 4 hens on lots under 350 m²; up to 6 on lots of 350 m² and over; hens only, at least 4 months old at acquisition
Roosters	Prohibited (no change)
Licence	Annual Bylaw licence, $35; online application with site sketch; neighbour notification on first application
Coop	One coop plus enclosed run; coop under 10 m² and 2.5 m high; 1.2 m from rear and side lot lines, 3 m from any neighbouring door or window; hardware cloth, predator-proof, insulated; no heat lamps
Run	Covered to exclude wild birds; at least 0.4 m² of coop and 1 m² of run per hen
Containment	Hens confined to coop, run or a fully fenced rear yard; locked in from dusk to dawn; leg band showing licence number
Feed and waste	Feed in sealed rodent-proof containers; manure in a sealed container, removed weekly or composted 3 m or more from lot lines
Health	Keeper names a veterinarian on the application; illness or death of two or more birds reported to Bylaw and CFIA; licence suspended automatically inside any CFIA control zone
Sales and slaughter	No sale of eggs, meat or manure; no on-site slaughter
End of lay	Surrender only to a vet, licensed rescue or farm; release or abandonment is an offence with a $500 fine
Enforcement	Complaint-based inspection; two substantiated complaints in 12 months revoke the licence; existing fines under 2003-77 apply

Pilot

Open licensing in three volunteer wards spanning density types, for example Stittsville, Rideau-Vanier and Orléans East-Cumberland. Cap at 150 licences, run 24 months, and report permit uptake, complaint counts at licensed versus unlicensed addresses, inspection hours and net fee revenue. At $35 a licence, a full pilot returns $5,250 a year against Bylaw's existing cost of answering chicken calls it cannot resolve. Make the rules permanent and lift the cap if complaints per licence stay below the current chicken-call baseline.

The ask

Ottawa City Council is asked to:

Direct Emergency and Protective Services staff to draft a backyard-hen amendment to By-law 2003-77 on the framework above and report to committee within 120 days.
Authorise a 24-month pilot in three volunteer wards, capped at 150 licences, funded by licence fees.
Ask Ottawa Public Health for a written position on backyard hens under biosecurity conditions before the pilot launches.
Report back at 24 months with permit, complaint and cost data and a continue, change or stop recommendation.

For residents who want this to happen: ask every council candidate before 26 October 2026 where they stand, consolidate the existing petitions into one with this framework as the ask, and offer councillors a visit to a licensed coop in Carleton Place. The evidence has been there for years; what has been missing is a sponsor.