INNISFAIL - Town council has rejected pet chickens for the community, and in doing so the credibility of its once heralded public engagement policy may be put into question.
"If we are not going to listen to the public why in the hell did we go out there and ask it? I don't know how many people (council members) can vote against this because we asked for public opinion, the public told us what to do. Why did we waste everybody's time asking for public opinion?" said Coun. Doug Bos during council discussion at its regular meeting on Nov. 13.
Council defeated a motion at the meeting by a margin of 5 - 2 to direct administration to create bylaw amendments permitting urban chickens in Innisfail. Bos and Coun. Jean Barclay were the lone supporters of the motion. Voting against it were councillors Glen Carritt, Danny Rieberger, Gavin Bates, Donnie Hill and Mayor Jim Romane.
"I just felt I made the right decision based on the people I talked to," said Romane, adding he was prepared for a public backlash. "I will take a hit. That is part of the process. I am not going to make every decision exactly the way people want, but you have to look at the best interests of the whole community."
Immediately following council's decision there was heated public reaction on social media, with a clear majority of citizens blasting council's decision not to follow the majority will of Innisfailians shown through an extensive month-long public stakeholder feedback survey process.
"I for one will not vote for Jim Romane. I will not vote for that mayor again. I will never vote again for the other people I voted for. I will vote 100 per cent for Jean Barclay, and hundred per cent support Doug Bos because they were supporting the people, they were doing the right thing," said a brokenhearted Lisa Reid, whose personal fight to save her pet chickens triggered the debate and controversy last May when she first appealed to council to have her birds legalized in town.
She was officially told by town staff on Nov. 14 that the council decision was final and that she would have to remove her pet chickens from town.
"Right now I don't want to focus on me and my chickens. I've already lost them," said Reid. "I just want to focus on the fact that some members of town council do not support its people and maybe we should be seeing that as an issue here and nothing else."
Romane called for public input last summer on the urban chicken issue. Council had been told there were many programs now embraced by several Alberta communities, including the cities of Red Deer and Edmonton. Town staff was directed to create a comprehensive online survey, with hard copies mailed out to every local household, that was available to citizens from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17.
The survey results, from a total vote of 627 — a community response rate of 7.35 per cent — showed 411 (66 per cent) were in favour of allowing pet chickens in the community against 204 (32 per cent) who said no.
"Right after the survey was given to us I said, 'well, this is a pretty good indicator' but I had no one in the community come to me saying, 'that's a great idea,'" said Romane, adding he even tried to change the minds of people vehemently against pet chickens. "Absolutely everyone who confronted me no matter where I was at -- in coffee shops and Remembrance Day was very exceptional. I had four or five people who said, 'you are not going to allow those stinking chickens in town.'"
Other opposing members of council added that anecdotal one-on-one public feedback was just too strong to favour an urban chicken program. They also noted many other concerns, such as sanitary issues, potential salmonella poisoning, noise, extra workload for local peace officers and reduction of property values.
But Coun. Barclay strongly believed many of her council colleagues' concerns could be managed with a responsible bylaw plan, pointing out the ones in Red Deer and Edmonton have proved successful. She agreed with Bos and initial public reaction that council's final ruling on the issue could endanger its once undiminished credibility on public engagement.
"I hope it doesn't but certainly it could. We have made it a priority to ensure we do public engagement, listen to the citizenry and in this case the results came back that a lot of people didn't like and now we are not listening to the citizens," said Barclay. "I hope (when) there is a subject that comes up we go to the public about it and people are passionate about it, people will still participate."
See editorial on page 6.
