The statement comes after CBC Hamilton reported that the city hasn’t responded to pest complaints in over 4 years
The mayor of Hamilton wants city staff to say sorry to the public for not following pest rules for more than four years.
The tweet from Mayor Andrea Horwath on Thursday was in response to a story from CBC Hamilton that said tenants who called the city for help with cockroach and bedbug problems have been ignored.
Kevin McDonald, the city’s director of public health who is in charge of the healthy environments division, said in the past that Hamilton’s public health division stopped pest control when the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020.
That means that landlords who don’t keep their buildings free of cockroaches, bedbugs, or rats, as the city’s property standards bylaw requires, haven’t been fined or ordered to do so.
“This is completely shocking and unacceptable,” Horwath wrote on X, which used to be called Twitter.
“I told city staff that I want them to apologize to the public and take steps right away to fix this problem and get bylaw enforcement back on track.”
She said that the council will make sure the problem is fixed.
Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2) and Nrinder Nann (Ward 3) from the downtown area both said they would back the mayor.
Nann said on X that our residents deserve to have health and safety problems like these fixed quickly.
“Landlords need to be careful to make sure that our neighbors who rent have safe places to live. And when they aren’t, the city’s rules are the key to holding people responsible.”
Matthew Lawson, who is in charge of public health, told CBC Hamilton before that there isn’t much evidence that rats, cockroaches, or bedbugs carry diseases.
Health Canada, on the other hand, says that mice and rats carry diseases and that cockroaches also contaminate food.
Bedbugs aren’t known to spread diseases, but Health Canada says that their bites can cause allergic reactions, anxiety, and trouble sleeping.