At a regular City Council meeting on Monday, July 24 Council carried a motion to approve funding for the translocation of mule deer in Kimberley.
The original motion stated that council direct staff to amend the five year financial plan to include $50,000 per year in the next five years ($500 per deer x 100 deer) for the translocation project. Council defeated that motion and put forth a new motion to include $50,000 per year in the next two years.
The translocation project is part of the Public Safety Plan and Animal Care Application required for the Urban Mule Deer Translocation application to the Urban Deer Advisory Committee. This application process for translocation is for a program that has yet to be approved by the Provincial Government.
“It’s nice to see that we are being very proactive as a City, to access a program and ask for permission to conduct a process that actually has not yet been approved,” said Councillor Oakely. “We’re ahead of the game, but I think it’s a really good thing.”
“We’re looking at a worst case scenario in terms of $50,000 a year. In 2012, after there was a major cull, we didn’t see significant numbers of deer for a couple of years. I don’t think it would be five years times 50,000.
“There is a piece missing from this recommendation. Unfortunately Scott [Sommerville - City CAO] has not yet received word back of how the program, from the provincial level, how much money will come to the community and how do we access that?”
Councillor Hoglund responded saying, “unfortunately I will be voting against this motion, I appreciate the first part of the motion and I do respect the amount of work that the Deer Committee has put in with this problem. I supported the cull and I still support culls in the community, I supported it when we brought the dogs in and the City spent money on bringing them in, and I supported the last translocation.
“However, I’ve got a real problem with this, by us putting $50,000 a year away. These problem deers are the province’s problem and we as a municipality end up paying for all of their problems. We have spent a good amount of money to prove that all of these things work and I think it’s time that they came to the table. Our last translocation proved it can work; they didn’t even want to do it. $250,000 - that can do a lot of work in the community.”
“In theory, I completely agree with Councillor Hoglund,” said Oakley. “But practically, when it comes to practical matters of safety issues around town, I actually think this is better than a cull because you can remove many animals, and with a cull there is a set limit for each neighbourhood as dictated by the B.C. Wildlife Act Biologists.
“I also think that we have to put a number into the budget even though I predict it will be far, far less than that, especially if we find out that there will be partnership opportunities from the B.C. Government. Hopefully our MLA will be able to get to the bottom of it pretty quick here so we can move forward. We have to keep moving forward while we are arguing for them to partner with us on this, as a public safety plan.”
Councillor Kent Goodwin said, “I agree with Councillor Hoglund but I would support the motion to put this money aside. I would further add that if we do find that there is money available from the province, I would prefer to front end load this, and take more deer out in the first year or two. The sooner we get the numbers down, the quicker the problem goes away. If you can front end load it in the first two years then you may not have to go beyond two years.”
“If we go back to 2012, which is when we had the kill cull, we’re talking about a cull here anyways it’s a translocation cull. In 2012 we took out 100 animals, it was four years before we saw the numbers go anywhere near 100 again, with respect to the counts that we had. They were 75, 85, 90 and this past year is the first year we’ve jumped up to 140 or something like that,” said Mayor Don McCormick. “There are other factors involved in deer being removed. It’s my understanding that we have another 20 or 25 a year that get removed by car accidents; weather plays a role in how many deer survive through the winter, so we can’t predict what those other factors are. All we can do is control what it is that we can control.”
McCormick says it’s important to set that money aside so the City is prepared in case they do need to use it.
“Even though we’re suggesting that we put aside the $50,000 per year, the chances of us needing to use that; this is definitely a worst case scenario. If we don’t use it, we don’t use it and we recapture the money and we move it to other places. At least we’re prepared in the event that we absolutely need to use it,” he said.
Councillor Sandra Roberts said, “the deer are driving me crazy and have all along. Ever since 2012 when they took out the deer; I still have the same herd of deer at my house. I’ll drive home from an evening meeting like this and they’re in my carport. I’ll open my door and all of the sudden there’s like eight deer jumping up because they’re sleeping in my yard.
“I phoned conservation one time because there was a little deer with it’s arm hanging by a piece of skin because he’s been hit by a car. I asked conservation to come and put it out of it’s misery and they said there’s all kinds of three legged deer in the forest. So I am at a loss of how you can stop that.”
Council has approved the motion to put in an application for the Urban Mule Deer Translocation and will set aside $50,000 per year for two years for this program.