Sechelt council voted unanimously on Nov. 2 for staff to draft a bylaw similar to the Town of Gibsons' trap regulation bylaw, with the proviso that it be deemed acceptable by the District's legal council.
The decision ends months of debate that often centred around the legality of enforcing a trapping regulation bylaw in Sechelt.
Legal counsel provided to the District earlier this year said only the province has the power to regulate trapping.
But a second legal opinion provided by the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals last week challenged that.
"In regards to legalities, we went back to our attorney, and I know that the issue of spheres of concurrent jurisdiction came up, so we researched this extensively with the help of our lawyer," said Leslie Fox of the association at the Oct. 26 committee of the whole meeting.
"[The lawyer is] basically arguing that you do have jurisdiction to do it and she identifies exactly what clauses that would come under basically we're not banning trapping, just like Sechelt didn't ban hunting, you banned the discharge of firearms."
At that meeting, Fox's group spoke as well as representatives from the B.C. Trappers Association and the Fur Institute of Canada.
Each speaker tried to influence council's decision.
The Trappers Association and Fur Institute representatives told of the need for trapping and the humane methods that have been researched and approved over the years at the Fur Institute.
"In Canada, a trapper's licence is needed to practise trapping for any purpose including pest and disease control and for wildlife conservation," said Darlene Clark of the B.C. Trappers Association.
She said a potential trapping ban in Sechelt could create an increase in the number of nuisance animals in the District, contribute to a potential increase in local coyote and wolf populations, which could lead to human and wildlife conflict, and create the possibility of liability for the District.
Fox restated her case that trapping is cruel, inhumane and not the answer for animal control. She encouraged councillors to revisit the legality of enforcing a trapping ban again, using the information she had gathered from the association's lawyer.
Councillors asked staff to bring the association's legal opinion to their legal counsel for review, and at Wednesday night's council meeting they heard District lawyers may have missed something.
"We have forwarded this to our legal he's in Montreal dealing with another case, but what he on the outset said is that they definitely missed the spheres of concurrent jurisdiction part of it, so he's going to look into it further," said chief administrative officer Rob Bremner.
"They've definitely not taken that into consideration, so that's a problem, but we also have spoken to them. We know what council's intention is - to come forward with a bylaw that works. We know what you want and we will work with our legal to come up with something that is defensible and takes into consideration what council's concerns are."
With the comfort that staff would craft a bylaw that is enforceable, council voted unanimously to draft a bylaw, adding that it must be "acceptable by legal counsel."
Council also voted to restrict the sale and setting of traps within the District to licensed trappers only, and to have staff work on developing an education program about how the public can co-exist with wildlife.
That motion called for the Association for the Protection of Fur Bearing Animals, the B.C. Trappers Association, the SPCA and the Gibsons Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre to get together to help staff draft the plan.
Some were concerned that forcing groups with opposing views to work together could be asking for trouble.
"This is one of those things that council's had difficulty with before - putting discord groups together looking for mediation when there should be arbitration," Mayor Darren Inkster said.
Coun. Ann Kershaw thought it could work.
"It's not really to mediate between them. I think they can work together to educate the public and it's in everyone's benefit, right? They're not going to have anything to fight about. They want people to be educated so we save our kittens and our puppies," Kershaw said.
The need for a bylaw around trapping was brought up in early April of this year when Vicki Starfire's dog Sammie got caught in a leg-hold trap while they were walking at the top of Mason Road.
Concerns were raised over the safety of a trap being set where pets or people could trigger them.
Later a cat was caught in a trap in Gibsons, and the issue heated up with vocal opponents to traps speaking out at council meetings.
On Aug. 2, the Town of Gibsons led the charge by adopting a bylaw to ban the use of body-gripping animal traps including Conibear, leg-hold and the snare varieties. The bylaw carries a maximum fine of $1,000.
Proponents of banning traps have been pushing Sechelt council for a similar bylaw ever since.
