Raccoon Nation: Operation Toronto
- Christopher James O'Brien
- Apr 17, 2015
- 4 min read

Will the $31 million in tax dollars the city of Toronto spent on new raccoon-safe ‘lockable’ green bins be worth the trouble? Toronto’s foremost raccoon specialist, university professor, and Doctor Suzanne MacDonald reminded the city that there are plenty of places in the GTA where raccoons don’t get into the green bins, and there are no problems at all. “Raccoons can definitely survive without the food that the green bins provide,” she said.
When the new bins are introduced later next month expect that the raccoons will initially try their hardest to get into the bins. Though if they can’t, will they move on? If they relied heavily on the food provided from those bins, some raccoons will not survive, and if they do survive, they will have fewer babies next year. So there should be an impact on the population which will decrease the high densities of raccoons in some neighbourhoods in the GTA. We can only be sure of what will happen and that is that nature will take its course. In an ideal world, it would be a win / win situation though this non-aggressive, non-violent approach may just work to both our benefits.
Toronto Mayor John Tory believes the new bins are an important addition to the city because the green bin program collects the majority of the city’s waste including compost and organic waste. For both environmental and cost reasons the program will continue, and with the new bins, is expected to be a great success.
An associate of the mayor and Toronto Chair to the Public Works Committee Councillor Jaye Robinson approved the new bin design only with local politicians at her side only recently. The winning bid for the $31 million manufacturing contract went to the bidder with the highest quality product for the lowest possible cost. U.S Company Rehrig Pacific was bold enough to step in and take the deal. Lead engineer Derek Foster claims the bins are of good quality and will outlast the last our current bins which are well past the age of ten years.
Toronto is a very busy city during the summer with annual festivals, populated events, and this year welcoming the international Pan Am Games. With these people and events comes garbage and waste. Some of us located in these are already facing this problem at home. Large downtown apartment buildings are known to have up to ten or more giant garbage truck dumpsters each. Building Manager Crystal Aarons of 40 Gerrard Street East said,
“The raccoons are not really a problem; they are only more of a small nuisance. My staff and I have all seen them, and we don’t feel it is a big enough problem to really bring to the attention of a higher level, at this point.”
Results involving discussion of raccoon nation with the general public was rather varied. Certain pro-‘animal people would use words like ‘cute’, ‘cuddly’, and ‘furry’ to describe the critters while others comments included ‘pest’, ‘scavenger’, and ‘vermin.’ In the dictionary, the basic definition of these words pest or or nuisance animal that threatens human society by spreading diseases or destroying crops and livestock. Now, most would argue that this is not the case, though if you think about it hard enough, it very well could be.
We must now wait and see if this $31 million ‘set of weapons’ will help us to defeat the returning claws of raccoon nation. For all we know, implementing these bins could always bring to light a new problem we have looked past, a problem which could be worse. City council expects developments to be positive.
Reflective Essay:
The highlight of this assignment was making contact Dr. Suzanne MacDonald, a professor at York University, and local raccoon specialist. Suzanne’s name has been featured in countless recent news articles in regards to the raccoon population in Toronto, and the implementation of the new green compost bins. The city has paid over $31 million dollars for these bins and I am rather excited to find out how well they work. It was unfortunate that I did not hear back from Rehrig Pacific’s senior engineer though in the end, it was not really necessary. He nor his company could not have told me anything more about the raccoon situation in Toronto than what I already know.
Toronto Councillor, and Chair to the Public Works Committee Jaye Robinson approved the new bin design to which I approve, though was vague in her email response as I was simply referred to recent local news articles. Articles most of which I had already previously read and researched. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to find her name to be as popular as Suzanne MacDonald’s was in the media whenever there was any talk of raccoon nation.
Crystal Aarons, the manager of a downtown apartment building was interesting to talk to. She said the raccoons were not a problem and to her, they were only a small nuisance. Her staff and I have all seen them, and they nor I feel it is a big enough problem to really bring to attention. In fact after speaking with a lot of the general public (streeters), I found that a good percentage of people do actually like raccoons, though often the word annoying would appear.
To conclude, I would like to say that I support the city of Toronto for their efforts on attempting to put a halt to the progression of the raccoon nation. Though I do not wish the raccoons harm or hunger, I do wish the new green bins will be worth the $31 million in tax dollars which we are spending on them. In a perfect world, I would like to see the humans and raccoons live in harmony together. Personally, I find them very interesting. It was only just a few days ago when articles and photographs were posted in regards to a raccoon who climbed over 700 feet off the ground to follow a man up a crane which sat on top of one of a rising condo tower. There are stories of them doing interesting things like this all over the internet, and not just in Toronto, but all of Canada. I have never heard a complaint over a raccoon north of Ontario’s Highway 7 so I wonder if we the citizens of Toronto have pushed this too much, or if the raccoons have actually gone too far.
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