The City of White Rock says it is putting more bite into its bylaw enforcement.
Starting next week, commissionaires – who have been contracted to provide bylaw and animal-control services since 1989 – will no longer be charged with ensuring the city’s bylaws are followed, said Paul Stanton, the city’s director of planning and development services. The duties will instead be tasked to individuals hired and trained by the city.
The move is a result of complaints, coupled with a desire to focus beyond parking infractions to ensuring rules such as those regulating smoking and dog control are abided by, Stanton said.
“We keep getting complaints about dogs on the beach, not enforcing the smoking bylaw…” Stanton said Wednesday. “Starting next week, the city will be taking a new focus.”
Commissionaires BC vice-president of operations Doug Stuckel, however, said the city assured him there were no concerns with the service; that the decision was simply about restructuring. He noted five of six full-time commissionaires who were serving White Rock under the contract have been hired under the new structure.
“I’m thinking we must have been providing a pretty good service if they’ve hired five of our commissionaires,” Stuckel said, describing the loss of any contract as “regrettable.”
The city’s contract with the commissionaires ends Saturday.
Mayor Catherine Ferguson said council began discussing the matter behind closed doors in January. It is to be formalized at the May 9 council meeting.
Ferguson described the switch as an “organizational change” that will improve service to residents with little to no budgetary implications. It separates parking enforcement from other bylaw issues, and ensures those enforcing the city’s rules have the proper training and authority to do so.
One significant change will be the appointment of peace officers, who have more power when it comes to seizing dogs deemed dangerous or issuing infraction tickets.
Stanton said the new officers will also be better-equipped to deal with contentious situations, both as a result of their additional powers and because they will be trained in conflict management.
“If (offenders) try to tell them where to go, then they run a higher risk of a higher offence of obstruction of justice, in which case we can bring in the RCMP,” he said.
Stanton added that having the officers as city employees will give the city better control over training, as well as the ability to discipline in the event of problems.
Coun. Lynne Sinclair said the new approach is one all of council supported.
“When you don’t have teeth to enforce the bylaw, that’s been a problem for us,” she said. “This will give us a measure of control over our standards, in terms of how we approach people, how we enforce, the degree to which we enforce.
“It was very clear that this was the right way to go.”
