Council approves some Bear Committee recommendations, defers others to budget time

Prince George City Council approved a number of recommendations from the City’s Advisory Committee on Bear Awareness, but not all of them.

At tonight’s (Monday) meeting, City Council decided to defer items with significant budget impacts to the next budget cycle.

Recommendations that include budget implications that were deferred included:

• Establishing a “Sustainable Waste Coordinator” position and committing financial support to the position for five years,
• Directing administration to establish a Bear Aware Technical Committee consisting of the Sustainable Waste Coordinator and several other community stakeholders,
• Incorporating automated bear-resistant solid waste bins for residents on a pilot project,

“We just went through a significant budget process where we debated heavily on enhancements and department budgets,” said Councillor Tim Bennett.

“My concerns is that we’re now having another big budget conversation at Council after we went through a significant budget consultation.”

Several Councillors echoed Bennett’s recommendation of postponing the items with budget impacts.

“It’s prudent for us to consider those when we’re considering the rest of the budget for the City,” said Councillor Ron Polillo.

“I’m with my fellow colleagues with on moving some of the recommendations that don’t cost us that much money. Staff time yes, but no hard cost money.”

Council decided to move ahead with others that did not have budget impacts, including:

• Directing administration to continue to phase in bear-resistant solid waste receptacles in public places,
• Adopting a new bylaw specific to wildlife attractants and solid waste,
• Amending the City’s Zoning Bylaw to permit electric fencing to secure wildlife attractants.

City Manager Walter Babicz noted that the items regarding bylaws would need further research before they could be brought back to Council.

“We are a little bit unique, our city is, in that we have such a great big space, we have a lot of large lots, and we have a big city footprint,” said Councillor Trudy Klassen.

“I think the electric fencing is something maybe unique to most cities, because most cities can’t do it for a lack of space.”

Another item that moved ahead after plenty of debate was the eighth recommendation in the report, which directs administration to include educational materials on human-bear interactions in the spring and fall utility bills, as well as directing administration to continue to incorporating bear awareness information on the garbage collection schedule, social media platforms and website.

Council made a number of amendments to the eighth recommendation which eventually turned into the original recommendation, which Council approved.

The City’s Advisory Committee on Bear Awareness was established in 2024, after 2023 saw 73 bears euthanized in Prince George.

The Committee reported to Council in November, at which point Council had asked for a report to return with the costs associated with the recommendations.