Slocan Valley

Residents in Area H vote 'no' on dangerous dog bylaw

Listen to the broadcast version of this story, which aired on Kootenay Morning on June 5, 2026:

By Jaime Frederick, Local Journalism Initiative

Last Saturday, voters in the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s (RDCK) Electoral Area H voted against a new bylaw that would have seen the creation of a new service to allow for regulation of dangerous and aggressive dogs in the Slocan Valley.

The intention of the proposed service was to deal with dogs acting aggressively towards or attacking people, other dogs, or livestock. The official results of the referendum were 432 votes against versus 282 votes for the creation of the service, meaning that the bylaw, and the proposed service, will not be implemented. 

Area H director Walter Popoff says this means that this particular bylaw is defeated and will not be considered again.

“As far as I'm concerned, to me, that issue is dead now," he says. "I've done my due diligence, and I've done my homework, and I've responded to the residents' requests."

Popoff explains that, at the behest of residents in Area H, he conducted a survey in 2020 regarding the establishment of a dog bylaw. He says 40 per cent of residents responded, and of those only 53 per cent were in favour.

At that point, however, he says that gave him enough direction to authorize staff to establish a regulatory bylaw, required by legislation, and then put forward the service establishment bylaw. Popoff says the RDCK could have followed an alternate approval process for the bylaw but he chose to put it to a referendum.

“I wanted my residents to have their say [on] whether they want that bylaw or not," he says. "And they have responded, ‘No, we do not want it.’ I've taken their direction, and I'm not going to pursue that any further.”

Popoff notes that the lengthy delay from the time of the initial survey in 2020 to the referendum in 2026 may have been part of the reason the proposed bylaw was voted down.

“Unfortunately, the survey that I did was back in 2020," he says. "Then COVID hit, there was a delay. If I probably would have had staff do the referendum within six months of the survey, it could have passed, but that's only my prediction. I don't know. But waiting six years, and with the tax increases that have been happening over the last few years and COVID, et cetera, the residents decided, no, we will not support that.”

Another factor may have been the cost of the service, which was budgeted by RDCK staff to be up to $109,000 dollars annually, a cost that would have to be borne by property tax payers in Area H.

“Well, you know, I mean, cost is always a consideration," he says. "When you add another service, that's an additional taxation to the residents that have to pay for that service. That's one of the considerations, and the other consideration [is that] we waited six years after the survey was done. And people might have changed their minds since then.”

So, for the moment, residents in the Slocan Valley with concerns about dangerous and aggressive dogs will have to follow the status quo in terms of how to address the issue. Popoff says without a bylaw, there’s just not much the Regional District or the RCMP can do.

“Well, you know, they can call the RDCK and the answer they're going to get from the RDCK is, we don't have a bylaw established in Area H, so there's not much we can do to help you,” he explains. “We don't have an animal control officer in Area H. This is what the service establishment-bylaw was to establish–an animal control officer that can go and handle situations like that with RCMP support…. [Residents] can file their complaint with the RCMP. The RCMP, if they have time, will go out there, warn the owner about the dog, but there's really not too much they can do [either].”

by Jaime Frederick