Longtime Greely resident Howard Crerar can’t let his 12-year-old daughter or his pets play outside in the backyard due to an increasing number of coyotes spotted in his neighbourhood. Before, he said, the coyotes would come out only at night, but now they are out all day long.

“As a taxpayer, I expect to live in an environment that is safe for my daughter and my pets," Crerar said. “We need to be more on the offensive with these coyotes,  as in collar them and mark them to find out where they live.”

Crerar voiced his concerns at a community and protective services meeting at city hall on Thursday. He supported the idea of public education to create awareness among residents, but said that instead of just posting documents on a website, he suggested education sessions in schools so students can take information home to their parents.

While agreeing that public education is the best solution to handle the coyote problem, Donna Dubreuil, from the Wildlife Centre of Ottawa-Carleton, had a different approach.

“We know that the pest control people want business, developers want business and the councillors want their politics,” Dubreuil said. “But since the suburban sprawl encroached on the coyote territory, we need to find a peaceful solution, because trapping and killing is not the solution.

“Ottawa needs to get with the agenda,” Dubreuil continued. “ Because coyotes compensate the high mortality rate by breeding larger litters, we’ve tried to get rid of the problem for over 150 years but have so far failed. “

Another item discussed was a new Neighborhood Pilot Initiative for the village of Vars, which will help develop a new vision for the community for the next 10 years.

Vars  is a rural village within the city, 25 kilometres east of downtown. Established in the 1880s, the village once provided services to surrounding farms and the railway that ran through it. Today, the population is 1,400. With limited employment opportunities within the community, most residents commute to Ottawa for work. In essence, Vars is a bedroom community.

The new initiative aims to develop a community centre that meets the needs of the village, encourage new businesses in the villages and the development of the industrial park through mechanisms such as reduced development fees, develop unused land and to limit residential growth in Vars to 10-20 homes per year and prohibit subdivision expansion by large-scale developers.

The committee agreed that the key to success is public participation.

“No one knows the community better than the people who live there," said Susan Jones of emergency management and preparedness. “Which is exactly why we need to engage the citizens and build collaboration among city departments.”