The first visit to city council-
Currently if you have an acre you can have 30 hens and if you have less than an acre the city denies you the right to have any hens at all. In March 2008, I showed up with a handful of supports, and gave a 10 minute presentation outlining the great opportunity this is for the city to become more sustainable and the request to put in place either a sliding scale by-law, or to allow 3-6 hens to landowners in Kamloops, who had the space and wanted hens. However, the idea was new and the support not developed enough, so at the first meeting the motion made to vary the by-law was turned down.
The Movement Gains Support
So we got organized, got a mascot (see below) held public meetings, put articles in newspapers and called radio stations. We built up a strong community group and came up with the pilot project. We partnered with the Kamloops Food Policy Council and now have non-profit status. Today, the Kamloops Urban Hen Movement has over a hundred members, and has gained the attention of not only local but provincial and national media.
The Pilot Project Proposal Pandemonium
We went back to city council December of 2008, just a few short months later, and requested permission to do a pilot project. There was a great turn out. Extra chairs had to be brought into city chambers, and people were still sitting on the floor. There were experts in many related fields there to answer questions and 50+ supporters. Very exciting. The councilors voted to have city staff look at the project, do a little research and write a recommendation.
We had upwards of 60 families in Kamloops sign up to be part of the pilot project we proposed. We arranged a series of courses about hen husbandry, public safety / disease prevention and coop building during the winter. These courses would be put on by a local professional agrologist, a Ministry of Agriculture Poultry Veterinarian, and Home Depot, respectively. After completing these coursed the families, starting in May 2009 would each keep 3 hens for 6 months. The aim was to create a group of educated responsible hen owners in Kamloops to improve food security in the city and get people thinking more about where their food comes from and what is in it. After the pilot we planned to do an evaluation and a by-law proposal tailored specifically to Kamloops needs, keeping in mind what worked and what didn’t in the pilot.
The Final Recommendation and Vote
This was our proposal, that city staff looked at and did a recommendation on. After a few weeks of “research” on their part and one consultation with Urban Hens, their recommendation was this:
“That City Council not approve the Urban Hen Pilot Project and therefore
maintain status quo for keeping of chickens within Kamloops.”
Their complete report can be found by clicking here (go to page 59 of the report)
Among various other reasons, smell, noise, declining property values, feral hens running around and the overwhelming fact that the 19,000 lots in Kamloops would then have access to this resource, were stated as evidence that this is just too much for the city of Kamloops.
When asked what research they did on other towns and cities that allow this to get some of the information they cited in the report, the answer was short and sweet. Not much.
So in January of 2009, when this report was brought to council and voted on, there was much debate. Hours of it actually. It was rather like watching a hockey game. The questions went back and forth, there were fairly even divides between councilors, and finally, in a 4-4 tie, the pilot project was defeated.
And that, exciting but sad ending, is where we are at now. With a 4-4 tie (one of the councillors had to fly to Victoria- our hen friendly capital- that afternoon) it leaves us in a very hopeful position. We do have political support to go along with our community support and we will be back at city council. Or, like our absentee councillor, perhaps us hen loving folks could also pack up and fly to Victoria, where the politicians are progressive and the chickens are free.
So what we decided to do instead was request that the week of April 27th to May 2nd be declared Urban ArgiCULTURE week.
Here is the proclamation the Mayor of Kamloops signed on Tuesday March 24th . Hooray!
