WESTLOCK – The Town of Westlock will let its proposed chicken bylaw incubate a little longer with councillors slated to revisit it at their first meeting in July.
At the town council’s June 12 meeting, councillors unanimously deferred discussion and the passing of any readings on Urban Chickens Bylaw 2023-07 until their July 10 meeting, with mayor Ralph Leriger citing that night’s “ambitious agenda” that included more than an hour spent on the Pride crosswalk debate, then a 45-minute, mid-meeting in-camera discussion on the fate of Capri Mall.
Simply, Leriger admitted that his phone and e-mail in-boxes had been flooded regarding the Pride crosswalk and didn’t think they had “paid as much attention to the information provided on chickens as we did to our other issues tonight, for obvious reasons.”
The proposed seven-page bylaw, which CAO Simone Wiley said was comprised by looking at a variety of similar edicts that reflect “the standard across other municipalities”, was last in front of councillors at their May 15 committee of the whole meeting. If passed, the bylaw would compel residents who currently have chickens, as well as new owners, to complete a free permit so the town knows who has them. The bylaw also says that only chickens for the purpose of laying eggs for consumption would be permitted, while roosters would be banned. The proposed edit also caps chicken ownership at four, while anyone contravening the bylaw would face first-time fines of $250.
“I think it’s worth noting our process. We get information from everywhere — engineers, assessors and auditors. The reality is that any bylaw isn’t drafted with council being the experts, it’s done through consultation with experts,” said Coun. Murtaza Jamaly. “I’ve said this before, but council steps in when people can no longer be good neighbours.”
Added Leriger: “If you look at our community standards bylaw, almost everything in there is about when people don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbour, so we have to intervene.”
Wiley went on to note that the bylaw isn’t intended to be “onerous” for residents or the municipality as they only have one community peace officer and “the breadth of his duties is large.”
“We needed to ensure that we’re not coming up with a bylaw that is overly onerous to enforce as we simply don’t have the capacity,” said Wiley, highlighting the fact that some of the bylaws they viewed included permits and inspections for the coops.
Preceding council discussion, Nichole Stadnyk made a six-minute presentation on the bylaw, saying in her e-mail to the municipality that while she wasn’t opposed to it, she questioned some of the limits, like the number of chickens that would be allowed per owner. She even offered to conduct an “unbiased, comprehensive, wholistic, six-month research project” to help craft a bylaw that would be unique to Westlock and would “encompass the best interests of community as a whole” and asked that the current version be tabled to January 2024.
“I’m not opposed to bylaws as they’re necessary to any municipality, but I do think that it’s important to draft ones that make sense to each and every unique environment and Westlock is a unique environment,” Stadnyk told council. “I do feel that a collaboration between the community and council would be a positive step towards good relations and understanding between all parties.”
The history
In 2019, town administration brought forward an animal control bylaw which would also regulate chickens, but council only gave two readings to it and as per the Municipal Government Act, previous readings of a proposed bylaw are rescinded if it doesn’t receive third reading within two years after first reading.
The June 12 briefing to councillors notes there’s been a “drastic increase in the number of inquiries coming into municipal enforcement relating to backyard chickens” and that currently, the town has “no way of knowing” how many people own them.
It also states that there’s been one complaint that required enforcement in 2023, but with no bylaw on the books it was left to the owner of the property who was able to have their tenant comply.
“Our CPO has no mechanism, if you will, for any complaints regarding chickens to do any sort of enforcement in town,” Wiley said, when asked about the urgency of getting the bylaw in place.
“We’ve sent our peace officer out there with absolutely nothing to act upon and enforce and that’s terribly unfair to him and doesn’t give him the opportunity to actually resolve anything. You can’t force people to become good neighbours,” added Leriger. “Our most important consideration in any of our bylaws is our ability to enforce them based on how they’re written and based on our resources. That is our reality for sure.”
