Parksville city council were scheduled on Monday night to consider a $100 fine for feeding deer within the city.
The bylaw was requested as the first step in reviewing options to deal with the high number of deer in the urban area and the possible negative conflicts and effects.
Asked at a previous meeting how a feeding prohibition would be enforced, mayor Chris Burger said that hopefully having it on the books would put the message out there and begin addressing the problem.
The report from staff to council says they don’t know exactly how many deer are in the area and that this would be a first step to establishing the extent of the issue with a proper inventory and a public opinion survey on their perception.
The report says habituation can lead to unsafe wildlife interactions, whether with people, pets or automobiles, and that there is property damage, mostly to plants, as well as the possibility of disease transmission.