Bylaw officers hand out parking tickets and fines for raucous parties. They check out reports of property standards gone south. They license businesses and answer calls about off-leash dogs and livestock at large. Read MoreOttawa is holding its first bylaw appreciation day to honour the workers who help keep the city civil.
Ottawa is holding its first bylaw appreciation day to honour the workers who help keep the city civil.
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Bylaw officers hand out parking tickets and fines for raucous parties. They check out reports of property standards gone south. They license businesses and answer calls about off-leash dogs and livestock at large.
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Bylaws are dozens of local regulations voted into existence by city councillors, a list ranging from the location of clothing donation boxes to idling vehicles that govern how Ottawa residents behave and use their own properties and public spaces. No less than 13 city bylaws govern landscaping alone.
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“I don’t think the public truly understands the scope of the work to have a functioning civil society,” says Coun. Riley Brockington, chair of the city’s emergency preparedness and protective services committee.
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The Evening Citizen
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Brockington noted there were events to honour police, firefighters and paramedics, but not bylaw officers, so he wanted to remedy the situation.
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On Thursday, Ottawa honoured bylaw and regulatory services staff with its first bylaw appreciation day, marked by a flag-raising ceremony at city hall, and comments from Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and other officials.
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“No one likes to get a ticket. But they’re professionals. They do work that is not always appreciated or acknowledged,” Brockington says. In August, a bylaw officer was attacked and injured outside city hall after issuing a parking ticket. Another city employee intervened and stopped the assault.
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They do work that is not always appreciated or acknowledged
Riley Brockington City Councillor
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New duties for Ottawa bylaw officers have been added in the past decade, including licensing short-term rentals like Airbnb, answering calls about sick or injured wildlife and substantiating the evidence captured for automated speeding tickets, bylaw spokesperson Jonathan Walden says.
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In 2015, Ottawa had 158 full-time bylaw workers. By last year, there were 222.
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Bylaw officers take custody of pets belonging to people who have been taken into protective care or have been hospitalized, incarcerated or who have died. Officers have apprehended a tarantula and a full-sized pig. When there’s a fire in a highrise apartment building, bylaw officers are the ones who search the premises for missing pets after fire has been extinguished.
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“No day is ever the same,” says Walden, who notes that bylaws are often open to interpretation. What’s a weedy eyesore to one person can be another’s treasured naturalized garden.