The District of Sechelt will likely follow the lead of Gibsons and adopt a bylaw banning leg-hold, Conibear and snare traps, even though that bylaw may be unenforceable.
"Trapping is regulated provincially by the wildlife act and its regulations, and the province has made it pretty clear that they really don't welcome local government involvement in the form of regulating trapping," assistant corporate officer Margi Nicholas told council at their Sept. 14 committee of the whole meeting. At that meeting a report to regulate traps in Sechelt was presented.
Nicholas explained that in 2004 the "spheres of concurrent jurisdiction" regulation was passed, which takes away local control of anything authorized under the wildlife trapping act. "What it says is that you can regulate wildlife with bylaws all you want, but you must exempt anyone who is authorized under the wildlife act to trap. So in effect any bylaw that regulates trapping will have no effect if someone is licensed by the province to do that particular activity," Nicholas said.
Mayor Darren Inkster asked how Gibsons passed a bylaw banning the traps if the jurisdiction lies with the province, saying the Town must have had some legal council of their own before crafting the bylaw.
"I was curious about the same thing," Nicholas said. In [Gibsons] staff reports I didn't see any reference to obtaining a legal opinion and I was unable to get a response from their corporate officer as to how they went about this. All I know is they have adopted a bylaw and when I questioned our solicitors on that they assured the obvious answer is that it hasn't been tested in the courts so we don't how valid it is.
Some councillors were eager to adopt a bylaw that would test the province's jurisdiction in the area of trapping.
"Sometimes it's appropriate to go ahead and pass your law and face up to the province and dare them to take you to court. If municipalities in B.C. want to take charge of their own jurisdictions you can't just sit back and wait for somebody to come out and help you, you have to get out there and do something," Coun. Alice Janisch said.
When the vote was called to recommend creating a similar bylaw to the one Gibsons passed that bans leg-hold, Conibear and snare traps, Inkster and councillors Janisch, Keith Thirkell and Warren Allan were in favour, with councillors Ann Kershaw, Alice Lutes and Fred Taylor opposed.
The bylaw will come to the next council meeting on Sept. 21 for a formal vote by council.
