BANFF –The tourist town looks set to get two new bylaw officers who will focus primarily on traffic enforcement.
Council has voted 6-1 to tentatively approve two new officers, bringing the bylaw department’s staffing levels from 6.66 full-time equivalent positions to 8.66. A final decision won’t be made until final budget deliberations on Jan. 16 and 17.
Officials say a major component of work for the two new positions, which are estimated to bring in $450,000 in additional revenue, would be traffic safety given that police traffic enforcement has tapered off and lead to a $500,000 drop in fine revenue.
“We don’t want to be seen as the department that sits on the post office corner every day,” said bylaw services supervisor Tony Clark. “But I think we can pretty safely say we should be able to hit these revenue numbers and increase safety at the same time.”
Total capital costs are about $169,000, including new vehicles, while operating costs are in the range of $197,000, which includes $80,500 per position in wages and benefits. There’s also officer training and uniforms to be paid for.
Mayor Karen Sorensen voiced support for the additional officers for the busy department, noting the positions will more than pay for themselves with additional revenues generated from fines.
The two new officers would also focus enforcement on off-leash dogs and patrolling public places where alcohol and pot is banned as part of a restructure of the bylaw services department, to be renamed bylaw enforcement department.
“Our visitation has grown so significantly, that to suggest the same number of bodies can be as effective, I don’t think that’s possible,” she said. “I don’t even think it’s about moving people’s responsibilities around; something’s got to give.”
In the past year-and-a-half, the provincially funded Bow Valley integrated traffic unit, consisting of RCMP and provincial sheriffs, has shifted more focus to highways within its jurisdiction and less focus on in-town enforcement.
The Town of Banff’s police revenues for traffic offences have declined in the past several years: 2015, $770,397; 2016, $685,306; 2017, $365,869; and about $200,000 for 2018.
Officials at the Banff RCMP detachment say officers are still writing the same amount of tickets within the community as they always have, but the integrated traffic unit is spending more time on the highways.
Staff Sergeant Mike Buxton-Carr said he couldn’t say for sure where the revenue has gone, but suspects it’s due to a new electronic ticketing system that could indicate the offence occurred in Banff National Park and send the money to provincial coffers.
“We’ve written more fines in 2018 than we did in 2015,” he said, noting the number is historically between 1,000 and 1,110 tickets.
Silvio Adamo, the Town of Banff’s protective services manager, said he believes there’s a direct correlation between traffic fines and traffic safety, noting fines are aimed at changing people’s behaviour.
“The reality is there’s less sheriffs and RCMP doing traffic safety within our community and we’d all like to think that people aren’t on their cellphones or running stop signs, but they are,” he said.
Councillor Peter Poole, who voted against funding two more positions, wasn’t completely convinced this would lead to increased safety.
“I’m reluctant to fine someone just because we can if it’s not about safety,” he said. “Revenue for the sake of fining people doesn’t appeal to me.
Coun. Chip Olver said it’s always easier to consider something if it’s going to bring revenue in, but noted one of her prime considerations for this would be overall safety within the townsite.
“I believe that when we take proactive measures for bringing on people to focus on moving traffic violations that that leads to compliance,” she said, noting there was better vehicle turnover when bylaw began enforcing parking limits.
“When we aren’t taking those proactive measures, then it leads people to partake in behaviour that we don’t want to support because they become aware that we’re not paying attention.”
For the past two decades, the Town of Banff bylaw has had four community peace officers, including a department supervisor, and it wasn’t until 2005 that a full-time administrative position was added.
In this time, there has consistently been one or two summer seasonal bylaw officers added each year to focus on parking enforcement and to help cover the busy summer months. In 2015, a full-time parking-focused bylaw officer position was added.
“Despite continued positive growth in population, services, amenities, businesses, traffic and visitors, the bylaw services department staffing levels have changed very little in the past 20 years,” said Clark, adding the department gets about 1,000 to 1,200 action requests each year.
