Centre Wellington defers resolution on termite downside

ELORA – As new information has emerged regarding the local termite problem in central Wellington, this information must be understood before the Council can make a decision on how to address the problem.

At the start of Monday’s council meeting in central Wellington, Mayor Shawn Watters removed the termite discussion from the agenda.

“The reason I want to take it off the agenda is that we’ve had some new information over the past few days which staff are going through and I want to go through that with staff and then of course come back to that Council, we’re thinking of March ‘ Watters said.

At this Monday council meeting, the council should agree to support the second of three options to address the local termite problem.

Option one was for the council to have a single vendor termite management program in place to control local termites, assist affected property owners and provide termite education. The second option for the council to support was to help people pay for termite control themselves. Or the third option, the council could do nothing.

The eastern subterranean termite was first found in the Windsor area in the 1920s. In the 1970s, this species of termite was present in 30 Ontario communities, including Elora and Fergus.

In 2021, a survey found that the termite was present on 259 properties in Elora and Fergus.

The Council is scheduled to take up the issue again in March

Jesse Gault is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a government funded program.