“It really means that in 2016 there will be no deer management program in Oak Bay, and we’ll have to see what we do for 2017,” Mayor Nils Jensen said.
Instead, the municipality will budget $10,000 for a public survey on attitudes and awareness of urban deer and any leftover costs from last year’s deer management program.
Jensen and councillors Hazel Braithwaite and Kevin Murdock were in favour of a $30,000 budget item to create a yet-to-be-defined municipal deer management program, while councillors Tom Croft, Michelle Kirby, Tara Ney and Eric Zhelka were opposed.
Council had previously accepted the principle that the municipality had a role to play in urban deer management in partnership with the province, Jensen said.
In 2015, Oak Bay conducted a cull of deer, which prompted protests and saw 11 deer trapped and killed over a 16-day period.
In 2015, Oak Bay
conducted a cull of deer, which prompted protests and saw 11 deer
trapped and killed over a 16-day period. Photograph By
BRUCE STOTESBURY, Times Colonist
