the broken typewriter

Allowing backyard chickens in Fort St. John is once again on the front burner as Councillor Jim Lequiere brought forward a Notice of Motion to investigate the issue at Monday’s council meeting.

“Throughout the province of BC there’s quite a few cities and municipalities that have backyard chickens. To have the best for our citizens, we should look into it and see,” Lequiere said.

Lequiere brought up the subject as a Notice of Motion during the regular council meeting, with the suggestion that council invite a presentation from the North Peace SPCA on what the organization can do to house backyard chickens and fowl, if they’re abandoned or injured.

He noted that with their new, larger facility in Fort St. John this might be a possibility that didn’t exist before.

Darryl Blades, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer said that the city has met often with the North Peace SPCA, and that backyard chickens and fowl are “outside of their provincial policies.”

The issue isn’t with the local SPCA facility Blades said, it’s just not something they do provincially and “they have very little desire to get into this business.”

“To entertain this, we would have to be able to find a local provider, outside of the SPCA,” Blades said.

At the next council meeting on August 11, Lequiere plans to bring forward a resolution directing staff to create a report looking into local providers who could look after backyard chickens and fowl if they’re abandoned or hurt.