At a council meeting May 11 the CAO of Oak Bay tabled a final report on the infamous deer cull. Under the financial impact section the costs are staggering.
In 2014 Oak Bay budgeted $25,000 and spent $21,112.28. For 2015 the budget has been raised to $35,000 and $31,069.93 has been spent. As the cull only took place in 2015, how did $21,000 plus get spent the year earlier?
If you add the numbers, the taxpayers of Oak Bay spent $52,182.21 to cull 11 innocent deer. That equates to over $4,700 per deer.
When Oak Bay thought (wrongfully) that there was a deer overpopulation, we were told they would cull 25 deer for a total cost of $12,500. The numbers quoted in the document do not include or reflect the district’s staff time allocated to this project.
William Jesse
Oak Bay