The city’s safety standing policy committee discussed the idea of allowing residents to raise hens in residential backyards last week. In a survey from 2019, more than half of the respondents said they do not support allowing people to keep up to four hens. The minority, 41.4 per cent said they were in favour.
“What we have from 2019 is quite a bit different from what we would have today and I think people’s awareness has changed quite a bit and I think how we do the survey is also very important,” said Gilles Leclair during his presentation to the committee on Oct. 13. “I think once people would see more examples of chickens in the backyards, they’d start to feel more comfortable with it.”
Leclair said benefits of allowing backyard chickens could include increased food security and decreased food waste.
“Creating a steady resilient food supply is nothing more than taking an old idea and putting it in modern form. By using chickens to enable them to do the things they do best we get a better handle on our green waste which doesn’t have to involve money or fuel or heavy equipment,” he said.
Councillor John Middleton-Hope was concerned about lack of regulation for people who may raise hens and the extra burden it would put on regulatory services. Leclair said he does not believe having a maximum of four hens would cause a lot of issues.
“If a person did have chickens in their backyard, I think the noise that might happen for one from chickens is pretty minimal, not a whole lot worse than crows or dogs barking,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen a whole lot and the smell is also very minimal — if you are only keeping four chickens and you give them enough space, there is a lot of air circulation happening.”
Based on previous surveys of Lethbridge residents, support for the idea is growing. In 2012 only 4.1 per cent of respondents were strongly supportive and 23.2 were somewhat supportive. Councillor Nick Paladino suggested it could be time for an update survey. Both previous ones were completed by Lethbridge College.
The committee voted to receive the presentation as information.
