If you break into park spaces that are closed because of COVID-19, it could cost you.
In an effort to help manage the spread of COVID-19, staff recommended council make changes to the parks regulation, bylaw notice enforcement and bylaw municipal ticket information bylaws to allow fines to be levied in cases where people don’t voluntarily comply with closures of features within city parks. Tennis courts, lacrosse boxes, basketball courts, skate parks, artificial turf fields, playground, outdoor fitness equipment and some off-leash dog areas are currently closed.
Erika Mashig, the city’s manager of parks and open space planning, said closed park features have been hit by vandalism, with the Queen’s Park fitness circuit being one of the “hot spots.”
“The staff have gone to great measures now to screw plywood through the fitness equipment and that has been further vandalized,” she said. “Cut locks are a daily occurrence on various tennis courts, as well as dog off-leash areas.”
Jackie Teed, the city’s senior manager of development services, said the city would only move toward enforcement after repeated attempts at education have been unsuccessful. She said it’s hoped the ability to ticket would result in compliance, as people would be aware that using those park spaces is unlawful at this time.
In a report to council, staff proposed fines of $1,000 in the municipal ticket information bylaw. Uder the bylaw notice enforcement bylaw, staff proposed an initial fine of $500, which could be reduced to $400 for early payment or $250 if the violator entered into a compliance agreement.
Kim Deighton, the city’s manager of licensing and integrated services, said the fines would address what’s considered to be a “fairly serious” offence, in that staff has gone to the trouble of putting up signage and cordoning off specific areas.
Most council members supported the notion of fines as a way of encouraging people to comply with the city’s bylaws, but expressed some concern with the amounts being proposed by staff.
“When I first read this report I was immediately triggered by the fine of $500 to $1,000. I felt like it was too much,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue. “I do hear from staff that really they are looking at some sort of progressive education or enforcement for people. I do also see that there is a difference in someone removing tape around a swing versus someone cutting off a lock or cutting a hole in a fence. I see that as being a very different infraction. I am supportive of the need to do this. I am concerned about the fine.”
Coun. Nadine Nakagawa questioned if there’s an opportunity to erect signage at closed park features that doesn’t include the threat of fines.
“I am not convinced the threat of fines on signs will be enough to stop people from doing that behaviour,” she said. “I appreciate staff’s frustration with the ongoing behaviour and the inability to change that behaviour. I am still not convinced that I would want to go the route of fining.”
Deighton said signage and locks are already in place, but they are being ignored by some people.
“It’s more like groups of teens that are kind of hanging out in the lacrosse box, perhaps publicly drinking and breaking the lock. Fitness enthusiasts that are taking away the plywood – so there’s signage and there’s plywood and things to block people from using it. I guess these fitness enthusiasts are really zealous,” she said. “The signage is there and the other obstacles are there, and so we were trying to have another tool to protect the city’s assets. Sending the staff there over and over and over again to repair is not a good use of staff resources in this difficult time of fiscal restraint.”
Coun. Patrick Johnstone supports the introduction of fines, noting staff have been using education and other tactics to get people to comply with these rules, to a point of using locks and fences to close these spaces.
“I think that when staff asks us for some support like this, for a tool in order to enforce protection of city property and to enforce the regulations that the province is asking us to enforce, I feel like we need to give them those tools so that they can have those,” he said. “Those threatening signs that say ‘please don’t do this,’ maybe they will be more effective if they say there is a fine.”
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the vast majority of New West residents fully understand the health crisis and are doing a very good job of practising safe social distancing and following the rules, but the city’s education and enforcement team has highlighted some challenges. He noted that a lock isn’t being cut by someone who is unaware the facility is closed.
“There has to be some ability to be able to enforce that,” he said. “I also think our enforcement challenges could become even worse if the headline on the Record this week was that city council has no consequences and no fines to disobeying these facility closures that we have put in place. Even the challenges we currently face would actually be more exacerbated if that was the community message that came from council.”
Johnstone suggested the fines be the same as those already included in the bylaw for similar offences, including unauthorized use of athletic fields and entry after hours. Those fines are $200.
Council supported fines of $200, which would be reduced to $150 if paid early and increased to $225 if paid late. Nakagawa voted against the bylaw amendments.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, assured council the bylaw would be targeted to very specific areas that need to be closed for specific purpose, and isn’t an all-sweeping tool to clear out parks.
“I want to further reinforce the fact that in my number of years with the city and within the parks and recreation department, I could probably count on less than two hands the times any fines have been issued for any bylaws with respect to the enforcement of parks,” he said. “The fact that the education and enforcement group is seeking some additional tools speaks to the extraordinary time that we are in and the only extraordinary measures that would need to be applied when we can’t go while we can’t achieve cooperation from the public to address those public safety issues that we are trying to point out.”
