Downtown beehives inch closer to reality in Winnipeg

There may soon be more bees downtown as a bylaw amendment that would allow hives to be installed on the roof of the Fort Garry Hotel passed another hurdle at city hall on Monday.

The hotel approached the city in May and asked to be allowed to place five beehives on its rooftop to make local honey. Under current bylaws, apiaries aren't allowed downtown only in agricultural zones outside of the downtown area.

A city committee voted to have a report completed on the project, citing a number of businesses interested in keeping hives and the benefits of more biodiversity downtown.

"The province has a bunch of guidelines and best practices anyway, so it's really easy to extend that municipally and make sure people feel comfortable with a gradual movement toward urban beekeeping," said James Patterson, a bee hobbyist who will oversee the hives at the Fort Garry Hotelif the bylaw is changed.

The downtown area is close enough to the riverbank and parklands to support several urban hives, Patterson said.

The bees would be about 10storeysup, so they wouldn't be in close proximity to people, he added.

The cityreport found Winnipeg is the only major Canadian city that bans urban beekeeping. It would be better to allow people to self-regulate beekeeping downtown, withnew hives simply approved by animal services, the report says.

The city's downtown development community approved the report's recommendations on Monday.

The next step for the changes will be a vote at the city's executive policy committee, and then it will goto city council for a final vote.