For the second time in less than a year, Flin Flon city council has backed off plans to outlaw troublesome noise at the trailer court.
Council voted Tuesday to table a bylaw that would have barred incessant manmade racket within the mobile-home neighbourhood.
“I think it’s too cumbersome of a bylaw,” said Coun. Bill Hanson, who announced he was withdrawing his support for the decree after “a couple of the people that this was designed for” told him they didn’t
want it.
Hanson said he understands where people worried about noise are coming from, as he has lived near a “crack house” on two occasions in Flin Flon.
“But I don’t know if this bylaw would have addressed that problem at that time,” he said.
Address noise
Coun. Skip Martin, who supported the bylaw, said it was meant to address persistent noise such as a dog barking, loud machinery or booming music.
“This just gives people a way to address that, some avenue to make a complaint,” he said.
Martin said the bylaw, which had already passed first reading, was modelled after a decree that covers the entire city of Brampton, Ontario.
It allows people concerned about ongoing noise to keep a log of the racket and submit the document to city officials for review.
As for opposition to the bylaw from within the trailer court, Martin said it’s great that some people are not being bothered by noise, but those who are should have some recourse.
Coun. Colleen McKee agreed with Hanson that the bylaw is cumbersome, but she said unless a complainant is willing to call the RCMP, there is no other option for people experiencing persistent noise.
Good idea
She called the bylaw “a good idea” that “needs to be developed further” and not restricted to the trailer court.
McKee’s motion to table the bylaw for further deliberation carried. Depending on the will of the next council to be elected Oct. 22, it may never resurface.
Council passed first reading of the bylaw on Sept. 2 with Coun. Karen MacKinnon the lone
opponent.
In late 2013 and early 2014, council initially approved, but subsequently rejected, a bylaw to ban off-road vehicles at the trailer court from idling for too long or too close to homes.
