Kanata votes on 2nd levy to kill mosquitoes

Kanata North residents have begunvoting on whether to keep paying extraon their property tax bills to ward off mosquitoes.

They're being asked if they're willing to pay an average annual levy of$16.85 until2023so a contractor can apply a biological larvicide, in a bid to reduce the warm-weather insects by 80 per cent.

• Kanata North mosquito program set for another vote
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Thatcost per household is slightlyless than the $17.35 residents paid in the past four years, after voting for the original levy in 2016.

Former councillor Marianne Wilkinson pushed for thatoriginal four-year trial, from 2016 to 2019,as a way to deal with the biting insects, which were keeping people from using their backyards.

Her successor, Coun. Jenna Sudds, gets weekly reports in warmer months and says the detailed tests show that the program is working, and the mosquito population is being cutby 80 per cent or more.

"The reality is the population of nuisance mosquitoes in Kanata North is large," said Sudds, pointing to how the neighbourhoods aresurrounded by wetlandslikeKizell and Beaver ponds, the Carp River, and the South March Highlands forest.

"So when 20 per cent aren't caught that can still seem a nuisance to people. But if we think about what it would mean if they caught none, obviously it's a big improvement."

Voting lasts until late January

Sudds has seen it as her duty to help the community make a collective decision about whether to continue the unusual levy, or not.

Many longtime residents tell her they've seen a dramaticdifference in the past few years. On the other hand, Sudds says her email fills up in the summer months with residents who say mosquitoes are still a big problem.

Information packages have been showing up in mailboxes. Residents are asked to mail in their ballots or vote online by Jan.22. Sudds hopes that the online option will boost voter turnout from the low 18 per cent of the 2016 vote.

City council would still need to approve the special tax levy after the results come in, and the city would then award a contract toGDG Environment.

The companywas selected in atendering process last fall and isthe same contractor that's been controlling the mosquitoes for the past four years.

Part of the levy would also pay for a three-year research project at the University of Ottawa to look at whether the biological larvicide affects other living things. The last research project found the mosquito treatment didn't affect other bugs.