INNISFAIL – There was plenty of humble smiles from Coun. Don Harrison last week over local fowl.
The town’s diligent plan to gauge public opinion about Innisfail’s two-year pilot urban hen project has shown that Innisfailians are undeniably ecstatic over the feathery creatures; once turfed aside by a previous town council but brought back to public attention nearly three years ago by Harrison.
“I think it's great. We went through the pilot program and it said it's certainly doable with the regulations and the requirements of being an urban hen owner,” Harrison told the Albertan. “We've had a lot of other interests coming into the program, so it's positive all the way around.”
Harrison was commenting after the April 10 regular council meeting when administration brought its hen pilot project review back to council to determine whether there was public appetite to elevate it to a permanent program.
Following thorough council discussion, a motion was unanimously passed for administration to come back to council on April 24 with a draft Urban Hen Program Bylaw, and make recommendations based on public feedback.
Harrison said he did not believe “at this time” there should be any changes made from the pilot project towards a permanent program.
“There's always room for continuous improvement but I don't see anything that needs to be written into the additional bylaw at this point,” said Harrison.
Town of Innisfail staff has been looking into the pilot program’s viability since late February as it officially ends on April 30.
Erica Vickers, director of corporate services for the town, told council on Feb. 21 that a big part of the review was to collect public feedback on the program, despite the fact there was only two households that entered the pilot project, which allowed for five pet chicken-loving homes.
Vickers was back to council on April 10 to submit her findings, and to seek direction on the program’s future.
In her report she said the town received just over 50 responses, with more than 90 per cent of them highly positive.
“I am strongly in favour of the Urban Hen Program for Innisfail. Hens (unlike roosters) are very quiet, clean and helpful pets,” said one positive response. “They provide a teaching opportunity of life and pet care to my children, as well as a positive interaction for mental health. Their daily production of eggs is sufficient for my family's nutritional needs and is economically and environmentally beneficial.”
Vickers' report also stated that municipal enforcement only received five complaints during the entire two years of the project, with none leading to any infraction tickets or fines to either urban hen household.
She told council each ticket was used as an “education and learning situation.
“And once a complaint came in, and they educated the resident, that same complaint never happened again,” said Vickers. “So, there was no issues or complaints felt by our municipal enforcement to not continue with the program.”
She added that since Jan. 31 the town has been contacted by 11 individuals who are interested in the future of the hen program and “potentially participating.
“Costs to the town to implement the two-year program was negligible,” said Vickers, adding the annual licence fee of $65 contributed to offsetting any administrative expense.
Mayor Jean Barclay said she was in favour of elevating the pilot hen project to a permanent program but added that she wanted it capped to five households.
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on bylaw if it got to be too many,” said Barclay.
Coun. Gavin Bates weighed in to offer a lighter touch to the discussion by noting that he grew up with 300 chickens and had to do the chores and today has “nothing against chickens.”
However, he did add he would like administration to take another look at the hen rules and guidelines that could be fine-tuned or modified.
Towards the end of the discussion Harrison noted the City of Calgary recently announced it was loosening restrictions on the numbers of urban hens allowed for each household.
“The way of housing a pet now is way different than it was before. The urban hen program is part of that,” Harrison told his council colleagues. “We need to start to think outside the box a little bit, and based on the comments that have come back from our constituents, we can see where we are headed.”
