Councillor uses Facebook to gauge community response to fowl play
By Kyra Hoggan
A Castlegar city councillor is using social media sites to try to gauge how much community support there is for allowing urban chicken husbandry within city limits.
Kevin Chernoff, now serving his third term at the council table, says the majority of the people attending council on the issue are in support of the notion … but he’s not convinced that’s providing an accurate cross-section of the community and her residents’ wishes.
“I think if the vote came up right down, we could have a council divided down the middle – that’s unusual, and speaks to how complicated the issue really is,” he said. “So I think it’s important we don’t make any assumptions about what residents want.
“It’s important that we hear all sides of the issue,” he said, explaining why he’s begun posting questions about the issue on Facebook, such as, “The backyard chicken debate goes on. To help me and others understand, I have some questions. I will post a series of these questions over the following days. #1-You would likely get your first chicks from a hatchery. By some estimates, sexing errors occur 25 to 50 per cent of the time. What if you wind up with a rooster or two? Roosters are not legal in the city and there are no plans to allow them, so what will you do with them? Most of these questions are going to be hypothetical and not there to put anyone on the spot, but if we are to even explore backyard chickens these have to be part of the pro/con equation to be able to make an informed decision.”
That was the first question, which has since been followed by four more (all are posted on The Source’s FB page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Castlegar-Source/161396481445 ) … and Chernoff says he’s not done yet.
“I’ve been really pleased with the number of people who have been participating in the conversation online,” he said. “There must be at least 75 replies so far, not counting the replies on The Source’s webpage.”
One of the issues he’s raised is increased taxation for bylaw enforcement should chickens be allowed – respondents to a Source poll on the subject (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Castlegar-Source/161396481445) voted overwhelmingly against paying higher taxes to deal with residents who aren’t properly housing or caring for their poultry.
Other concerns he mentioned is the predators urban poultry is likely to attract, who would look after chickens should a resident become incapacitated or abandon the birds, and even the possibility of released/escaped chickens becoming pest populations, much as rabbits have done in Rossland.
He said judging by the posts and the discussions taking place so far, most people are leaning away from allowing Castlegarians to keep chicken coops on residential lots within city limits.
“I expect we’ll be dealing with this issue again in the spring, so I wanted a sense of what people want,” he said.
Chernoff underlined that, while he currently opposed allowing urban chickens, his social media experiment is not intended to sway minds one way or the other, but rather to gather information and ideas that will allow council to best represent residents when the issue is once again brought to a vote in council chambers.
“It’s not a black-and-white issue,” he said.
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