Raymond’s backyard hens bylaw restrictive: Ranger

Posted on October 22, 2026 by admin

By Heather Cameron
Westwind Weekly News

During the Town of Raymond Council meeting on Sept. 14 local resident Greg Ranger spoke to Council about the Town’s current bylaw regarding backyard hens. 

Ranger emphasized that the application process to keep them are both heavily overregulated, legally problematic, and ultimately set the pilot program up for failure. 

Ranger also outlined that some of the critical areas of concern include the legal liability for the Town, as the current application requires the citizen to get written consent from 51 per cent of their adjacent neighbours. 

Point two, Ranger explained, is regarding unreasonable regulation and concern over Charter rights.

“The bylaw micromanages residents to an extreme degree,” stated Ranger. “It dictates that a resident must have exactly a 15-centimeter perch and limits manure to 45 liters. And there’s a few other things in there including a $250 fine for first offense and $500 fine for second offense and requires a sworn peace officer to physically inspect chicken coops and mandates that residents agree to unannounced warrantless backyard searches.” 

Ranger stated, directly conflicts with the administrative inspection notice requirements in the provincial government act and blatantly infringes on Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legislation that protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure.

A Minister of Red Tape Reduction, Ranger stated, was put in place to unburden citizens and businesses from overregulation, but the community seems to be overregulating everything, and that detracts from having a happy and productive community.

Third, Ranger addressed the unfairness of the one in 500 population rule and stated that imposing a strict arbitrary quota on the number of licenses allocated turns the municipal program into a lottery, turning it into a first-come, first-serve program. 

Raymond, Ranger explained, has a significant amount of people who have hens in the community, more than the bylaw would permit, and people should not be arbitrarily put under a numerical cap for that. The double standard, Ranger stated, is another issue in that immense work is required to keep poultry while domestic cats are permitted to roam freely and be a general nuisance.

“If this bylaw is truly about preventing nuisances, then it should be applied consistently across the board and include all animals,” said Ranger.

Ranger then invited Council to consider the current world situation with extreme food insecurity and how the urban hen program is helping with that.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the community, Ranger stated, have actively started encouraging one-year food preparedness programs and the community of Raymond needs to be mindful of that.

“If trucks stop coming to the stores, we would see a decrease of about 50 per cent or more of the available food in stores,” said Ranger. “The one thing we do have in this area is grain and the ability to feed livestock and hens. I think that we should be looking at encouraging every family in Raymond to have hens and gardens and things to be able to be self-sufficient and to provide for themselves. We should be looking at the time and the season of where we are. There are some troubling times out there and people need to be able to be prepared, and I think that we’re not really looking at this in the right light.”

Council encouraged Ranger to review Bylaw 1144-25, as several of his concerns were addressed in it, but they also promised that they would carefully consider his input before thanking him for his presentation.

Bylaw No. 1105-21 was originally passed by Council on Sept. 7, 2021, to regulate and implement a one-year pilot program for the keeping of hens in urban areas, a program that allowed opportunity for residents to keep up to eight hens for personal use. According to Mayor Coppieters, however, the program is set to be reviewed by Council committee soon.