Push to stop dog poop in schoolyards gets scooped up by councillor

One Toronto city councillor wants to help stop students from finding stinky surprises in their schoolyards.

Janet Davis, councillor for Ward 31 Beaches-East York, is asking the municipal licensing and standards committee to look into authorizing city bylaw officers to enforce the off-leash dog bylaw and the stoop-and-scoop bylaw on Toronto school yards.

• How to keep downtown Toronto from going to the dogs
• Toronto off-leash dog complaints spike

Municipal bylaw officers are responsible for ensuring dogs don't leave messy deposits behind, but theydon't have jurisdiction onTDSBproperties.

And even if they did, TDSBspokesperson Ryan Bird says, enforcing the rules isunlikely.

"With 584 schools across Toronto we can't have TDSB security patrolling all these places all the time looking for irresponsible dog owners its just not realistic, he told CBC Toronto. "Nor can we completely block off all of our yards like fortresses to stop make sure dogs are not coming on to school property."

Bird couldn't confirm whether or not the board would be open to allowingcity bylaw officers to enforce the relevant laws on schoolyards. But he agrees that the issue is definitely a problem even though dogs are technically not allowed on school property.

"When you're a parent who gets a child coming home with dog poop all over their clothing and you're literally picking it out of their hair, it becomes a lot more of a real issue for people."

The Municipal Standards and Licensing committee will vote on whether to consider Davis's recommendation next Friday.

If adopted, they will ask the City-School Boards Advisory committee for their input.