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STRATFORD – A request for information came during the presentation of the Perth County Forestry Inspector report.
The report states that in September, Marvin Smith, forestry inspector, completed five inspections in response to the submission of a Notice of Intent and three inspections in response to a request from a landowner.
According to the report, two inspections occurred in North Easthope Ward of the Township of Perth East; one in the Ellice Ward of the Township of Perth East; Four in the Elma Ward of the Municipality of North Perth; and one in the Blanshard Ward of the Township of Perth South.
Perth East Coun. Rhonda Ehgoetz explained that through the open houses hosted by Perth County, she has learned that there are prosecutions occurring in relation to the forestry bylaw.
“We always get these reports of where he’s been and what he’s done, and through our open houses, or whatever you want to call them, that they’ve been going around with the forestry bylaw. And we’re also learning that there’s 11 prosecution items happening within the township, and the county council does not seem to be aware of those,” she said. “I’m wondering if a report could come forward and tell us what those really are. And as we move forward, that we’re let know that these are happening. Anyway, I know some of them are, because people are calling me, telling me, so we used to get that years ago, we were told about any prosecutions that were coming along. We weren’t always told all the details, but we were told that they were happening … we don’t seem to be getting that information anymore.”
Perth County is currently seeking public feedback about proposed changes to the forestry conservation bylaw through presentations to all lower-tier municipalities, as well as a scheduled open house to occur on December 10, 2025, at 6 p.m. at the Perth East Recreation Complex (PERC) in Milverton.
CAO Lori Wolfe replied stating that the report is in the works.
“We are working on a report, the prosecutor has been requested to do that. We were hoping that perhaps we’d have room on the agenda today to add that to a closed session item, but given the constraints of the meeting time and the possibility that that discussion might be longer, we didn’t want to cut your time short for that particular item,” she explained.
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