Residents with messy yards and loose garbage could face a graded fine scale for repeat offences.
Flin Flon City Council gave first reading to an amendment to By-law 108/78 during its regular meeting on Oct. 17. The bylaw establishes standards of maintenance and occupancy for residential property, and the amendment deals specifically with fines for property-related offences and how they are imposed.
“It looks at some of the different offences under the bylaw that are, by their nature, repeat offences,” said Mark Kolt, chief administrative officer for the City of Flin Flon.
“It does two things with respect to those – one is it provides a graded scale so that the subsequent offences are a higher penalty. It also provides for using Municipal Enforcement Act procedures to enforce them. That is important, because it provides a streamlined approach that doesn’t involve the provincial court system. It makes it easier to prosecute and impose fines.”
Coun. Bill Hanson, who put a forth a resolution to give first reading to the amendment, gave the example of loose garbage as an offence.
“If you continually are throwing your garbage out onto the street and it becomes a mess so the dogs can get into it, the first fine would be $100, the second $200 and so on.”
Under the amendment, offences relating to yards – the bylaw requires they are kept free of garbage and debris, derelict vehicles and trailers, excessive growth of grass or weeds and hazardous objects – would see offenders fined $100 on the first offense, and an increase of $100 increments for each subsequent offence up to $500 for the fifth offence and beyond. Offenses relating to garbage would see the same fine schedule.
Offenses relating to rodents, vermin and insect control and unsanitary conditions – the bylaw requires all buildings be free of vermin – would see the offender fined $300 on a first offence and $500 for subsequent offences.
Kolt said the option of having some of the City’s bylaws enforced this way has been welcome.
“It allows things to occur in a much more streamlined and realistic way. That’s a big part of this. The other is a sense from council that if you’re having a repeat problem with the same sort of thing, that should be recognized, and by setting out a fixed scale, you’re making it a little easier for the people involved to hand out a fine in a standardized amount.”
The amendment will need to pass second and third readings before it comes into effect.
