Vancouver Council votes to regulate sale of bear spray

On March 28, 2023, Vancouver City Council passed a staff report on the sale of bear spray. The bylaw would require that:

• Bear spray not be sold to individuals under 19 years of age, and, not be sold to individuals who do not provide “authorized identification” (driver’s license, identity card issued by a Canadian province or territory, Indigenous status card, passport, or, any other form of provincial or federal identifcation) verifying that they are over 19 years of age,
• bear spray be kept in a locked area, otherwise inaccessible to the public,
• a record be made and kept of every sale of bear spray including date and time of sale, product name and quantity sold, name and address of the purchaser, type of authorized identification provided by the purchaser, and, the identification number on the identification provided,
• seller maintains the record of the sale for a period of 12 months from the date of sale, and
• seller makes the record of sales available to the (City’s Bylaw) Inspector upon request, for the purpose of verifying compliance with the bylaw.

RCC’s expectation is that City Council will consider the draft bylaw in the coming weeks or month. RCC notes that while the City of Vancouver is the largest B.C. municipality to consider such restrictions, Vancouver is not the first municipality to regulate the sale of bear spray (there are existing requirements in Chilliwack, Port Coquitlam and Surrey). RCC will continue to monitor progress of this issue.