Council voted to move a motion forward that asks the province to amend wildlife management regulations to reflect urban wildlife populations.
Coun. Bob Whetham put forward the draft motion, which says that current regulations don't address human-wildlife conflicts in urban areas and lacks the flexibility needed to develop new approaches.
The motion asks that the province authorize a person to use alternative wildlife management techniques if the regional manager considers it necessary for the proper management of the wildlife.
"This is an outcome of one of the meetings we had with the deer committee," Coun. Whetham explained. "It was pointed out by a wildlife biologist that all the regulations we have in place right now were really designed to address the issue of addressing deer populations specifically in the rural areas."
Whetham said there is no framework for managing deer in the urban areas.
He said the city should ask the province to amend those regulations in order to be able to look at experimental management techniques.
“As long as we’re contained within that framework we really don’t have options,” he said. “We need to be able to change those regulations in order for those wildlife managers to be able to give us permits for something like this.”
Wayne Stetski said this issue came up recently when the City of Kimberley was denied a 48-hour permit to conduct experimental hazing on its urban deer population.
“If we’re going to have options for the future, we need some changes as well to the regulations,” Stetski said.
Coun. Sharon Cross said there is potential to get some support from other communities to send the motion to the Union of B.C. Municipalities.