Full Resource - City of Edmonton

Student Resource
“I was aware I might get bylaw knocking at
my door,” said Sherris, who spent much of
her childhood on her grandparents’ farm and
appreciates fresh food. “I told the city I wouldn’t
remove the birds.”
She is one of an unknown number of
Edmontonians who keep hens in defiance of the
animal licensing control bylaw.
Some raise chickens for the eggs, and because
they make pleasant pets. Others appreciate their
gardening value: chickens eat weeds, bugs and
slugs, and also deposit rich manure, known to be
among the best animal fertilizers available.
A few Canadian cities, such as Victoria, Vancouver
and Guelph, Ont., allow backyard chickens, so
long as guidelines are followed.
Edmonton clearly forbids the practice of keeping
chickens and puts poultry in the same category
as poisonous reptiles, although the city manager’s
office has the power to grant exemptions to the
bylaw.
In 2010, members of the River City Chickens
Collective pitched the city on a pilot project that
would examine the impact of backyard chickens,
but were turned down.
Ryan Pleckaitis, acting director of compliance
and investigations with the City of Edmonton,
said he wasn’t aware that a fine for keeping
chickens has ever been levied [given out] in
Edmonton, though complaints have arisen in the
past, with warnings sent out. He [said that] noise
is a concern when it comes to chickens, as well as
“potential health impacts.”
Calgary doesn’t allow chickens, but an urban
chicken farmer there recently filed a court
challenge after being fined $200. Paul Hughes
maintains several provisions of the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms support his position…
Excerpted with the express permission of the Edmonton Journal, a
division of Postmedia Network Inc.
What’s that buzz
Urban hives on the rise
EDMONTON JOURNAL
July 7, 2010
There’s a buzz around the world that Edmonton
should pick up on. No, it’s not vuvuzelas [plastic
horns that make a loud noise] -- we could
do without them, thank you very much. It’s
honeybees….
Bees, let us not forget, are our friends. They
pollinate one-third of our food crops and are
essential for the production of many plants we
treasure….
There are some 10 000 registered apiarists
[beekeepers] in Canada at the moment, of which
80 percent are hobbyists…. Of course, most of
those hives are located outside cities. That’s the case
at least to some degree because city and suburban
[bylaws] in many locales, including Edmonton,
either forbid backyard beekeeping or make it
functionally impossible due to lot size restrictions.
[Urban bee hives can be found in] opera house
roofs in Toronto, London and Paris, the Fairmont
Royal York Hotel, Michelle Obama’s White House
garden and Vancouver’s City Hall, to name but a
few. In fact, urban municipalities have been beelike
of late, busily scrapping or amending existing
statutes prohibiting or discouraging backyard
apiaries.
88
Make A Better City
Excerpted with the express permission of the Edmonton Journal, a
division of Postmedia Network Inc.