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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City council is in a holding pattern after Monday's vote to refrain from killing birds at the dump to protect air traffic at the nearby airport.

Instead of culling birds now, council hopes Transport Canada can tell them what the acceptable number of gulls and other birds at the landfill is before embarking on any plans to kill them.

"We don't want to use lethal control and the public doesn't want it," said city councillor Kevin Kennedy at Monday night's council meeting, in which council voted 4-3 to wait until Transport Canada arrives next month to determine how much of a problem the dump birds really are, and whether the landfill can be expanded into an adjacent rock quarry without posing a risk to air traffic.

The city needs approval from Transport Canada to expand the dump, which lies within the 8-km no dumping zone mandated at airports throughout the country.

A consulting group, Beacon Environmental, has already recommended the city kill 20 gulls and two ravens a week to start.

Kennedy, who presented the amendment calling on the city to wait for Transport Canada's visit first before culling, said it's been a "difficult conundrum to solve."

"Administration will request that Transport Canada provide a specific, measurable ruling on acceptable levels of gull activity at the landfill, continue monitoring gull activity while pursuing all available options short of lethal control to achieve that standard," the amended motion reads.

Couns. Kennedy, Dave McCann, Shelagh Montgomery and Mark Heyck voted favour of the motion; Couns. David Wind, Paul Falvo and Bob Brooks were against.

At the Monday Priorities, Policies and Budgeting committee meeting, director of Public Works Dennis Kefalas said the city had already applied for the Canadian Wildlife Services permit to cull birds at the dump.

"We need to show Transport Canada we are doing everything we can," said Kefalas. "We don't want to give them the open loophole to come back and deny us."

A denial to expand the dump would require the city to move somewhere outside of city limits and could cost the city in the neighbourhood of $30 million to do so.

McCann said killing the birds now was the only way to show Transport Canada that the city is serious about its concerns.

"We either comply or we look forward to moving our dump," he said.

Beacon Environmental recommended culling birds plus using pyrotechnics and cannons to scare the birds away. The city started using these latter methods in early April, but it didn't take long before the birds became used to them, according to Bruce Underhay, solid waste facility manager at the landfill.

Ron Ellis of Beacon said in order for the non-lethal scare tactics to work, they must kill birds.

"You have to bring as many boxes of bullets to the table as possible," said Ellis, adding the cannons work better on migratory birds than resident birds like ravens.

He added he's never seen an effective management system that didn't use at least some lethal control.