People will soon be getting tickets for infractions around Burns Lake.
The tickets won’t usually be an order to pay immediately, though. A grace period will phase the system in. But since the Village of Burns Lake (VBL) took the first step of hiring a bylaw enforcement officer, Ken Chalmers, the next step was to empower the position.
“This is exciting. Our bylaw enforcement officer is developing some warning tickets,” VBL chief administrative officer Sheryl Worthing told town council at their last public meeting.
“For a soft start?,” asked mayor Henry Wiebe.
“Yes, so if the same vehicle is parked in the wrong spot a number of times, the ticket will have a blank spot so he can write out what the issue is and leave it on their vehicle, just so that people can start getting used to the fact that they’re doing things wrong and we’re going to stop them.”
Two-way forms are being printed up, so the recipient of the ticket will have a copy and the Village of Burns Lake will have an identical copy, for both parties’ records.
Right now, bylaws are enforced on a complaint-based basis. Someone can call the VBL office and let someone know about an infraction, and action can be taken. The new officer will mean the village will be out hunting for infractions, or if one naturally presents, action will be immediately taken.
This is a common practice across B.C., enabled and backstopped by the Ministry of Attorney General.
Worthing said it would take less than a year for the warning campaign to turn into a full enforcement campaign, and legally, at any given time, including now, a broken bylaw can be actioned to the full extent of the law.
Chalmers would also be working with VBL staff and council to update bylaws and enforcement practices. Worthing itemized the main points of the new program of proactive enforcement:
- Fine tune/modernize some of the bylaws that need to be modernized. This is underway.
- Develop a bylaw enforcement policy that is proactive. This is underway.
- Develop a policy for responding to complaints. Also underway.
- Seek Ministry of Attorney General approval to issue Bylaw Enforcement Notices. June 30th deadline.
- Adopt an adjudication process for managing disputes with a Bylaw Enforcement Notice. December 31.
- The bylaw officer will develop an operational process for what their day-to-day business will look like. Underway.
“Parking is likely the biggest target but could also include people walking dogs without a leash or open air burning,” said Worthing.