Dogs, leashes, Lemieux Island

This morning, a story appeared in the media highlighting the new signage that has gone up on Lemieux Island indicating dogs are to be on leash.

I was alerted to these last week, and have been investigating.

Lemieux has been used by dog-walkers as an off-leash area for years, largely without issue. But, it is not a city park, and the signs simply re-iterate the rules that have been in place for years. Dogs, at least on paper, are not allowed off-leash. Signs to that effect have, in fact, already been in place.

While the vast majority of owners using Lemieux Island are responsible and have their pets under voice command, regular users know that is not always the case. Disrespectful behaviour is particularly problematic now with outside contractors onsite working to accomplish some needed infrastructure renewal.

I’ll be working with the City to ensure that the area can continue to be used for off-leash exercise, and that the City focuses on the problem users to ensure a safe environment for everyone. No one is seeking to completely prohibit use of the area, and I am confident that those owners responsibly using the area to exercise their pets will be able to do so for the foreseeable future, whatever mechanism we need to use to accomplish that.