At the meeting of council for the Village of Canal Flats held on November 14th, council discussed a complaint put forward to bylaw officers from a resident in regards to pigeon waste contamination on their property.
Council heard the complaint and decided that they would go through the process of collecting more information about the legality of creating a bylaw on pigeons.
“Council has not made a decision on whether or not they are going to put a bylaw in place and they’re waiting for information from staff, so basically a legal opinion,” chief administrative officer Heidi Frank said.
Frank said that bylaws around pigeons are a common practice held throughout other municipalities across the region. In Kimberley, a bylaw makes it illegal for anyone to keep, race or show pigeons in any part of the city zoned primarily as residential use in addition to banning the owner of pigeons being permitted to fly their birds within the municipal boundaries of the city.
In Cranbrook no person being the owner or keeper of pigeons is permitted to use their land for the keeping of pigeons while also mandating that it is illegal to control or feed stray pigeons. There is no immediate timeline for when information will need to be collected by.
Council also heard from Sjac Pronk who’s organizing the first annual car show at the Canal Days festival held inthe Village every year. His request from council was their support for the usage of town equipment to prepare for the car show next year, which he would use in his own time.
Pronk said that the use of the town’s equipment won’t be used as a way of construction on the site but will bemore of a precautionary measure in case some touching up—such as watering the grounds and fixing fence posts—needs to be done around the area.
“Really it’s nothing serious that the machines are being use for really,” he said. “There’s no major construction or anything like that. It’s more a convenience if they’re needed.”