A proposed urban hen program has once again laid an egg with Cochrane town council.
Council rejected a motion to establish a one-year urban hen pilot project involving a maximum of seven households. It also completely discarded the second option of conducting further public engagement. Council members pecked away at the proposal and were left with too many questions to proceed.
While the discussion extended beyond financial concerns, cost became central to the debate as it progressed.
A report from Jay Judin, director of community safety, estimated fixed staffing and resource requirements could reach $29,700, regardless of how many households were involved in the pilot. Startup costs for participants were estimated at $625 to $1,250 per household, with ongoing monthly upkeep ranging between $25 and $50.
“If we were to run this for $25,000 for seven households—even 10 households—to have chickens, we could buy people a lot of eggs for that much money,” said Coun. Tara McFadden, a sentiment echoed later by Mayor Jeff Genung.
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Coun. Alex Reed, who conducted extensive research on the topic, expressed interest in the program’s potential. Still, he shared concerns that ratepayers would be left picking up the tab—something he said contradicts the town’s user-pay philosophy.
“This would essentially shift the burden for those costs to the rest of the taxpayers of Cochrane to subsidize these households that want to have an urban hen program,” said Reed. “I have some concerns about the costs. Again, I like the idea of the pilot, but I just don’t think we’re there yet in terms of getting the answers to the questions that my colleagues and I are raising.”
Coun. Morgan Nagel questioned the estimated cost and the staff hours allocated to administering the program. He pointed to how his brother built a chicken coop on his farm near Edmonton over the course of a few weekends.
“To say that this is going to be 400 to 540 hours of work just to supervise other people building coops seems inefficient,” said Nagel. “If it is the actual estimation of how long this is going to take, I would suggest that it is revealing a broader inefficiency problem that we have in our operations.”
Still, he acknowledged the estimate, saying that if it truly reflects the cost, it’s simply too high to justify.
Previous councils have held much closer votes on whether to approve a pilot project. This time, however, council voted 6–1 against the proposal brought forward by Coun. Patrick Wilson.