CANMORE – A previous council ask that would have led to commercial food waste fines supporting a not-for-profit organization that educates residents and visitors on human-wildlife interactions has been rescinded.
However, the decision at last week's council meeting wasn't a result of a lack of support for further education, but because Town of Canmore staff emphasized to council the need to avoid relying on fines to support operational needs.
“We do not recommend that, as fines are an unpredictable and insecure source of revenue over time,” said Therese Rogers, the Town’s general manager of corporate services.
“We actually are dealing with a situation on the photo radar side where we’re funding an ongoing expense of (RCMP) officers with a declining revenue source and need to address that by moving those expenses to taxes. It is not recommended in any of our financial practices to do that.”
In April, council directed Town staff to return with a process and recommendation to funnel fine revenue collected from commercial waste violation tickets to the Bow Valley WildSmart program run by the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley.
According to a staff report, core funding for the Biosphere Institute for 2023 is $77,898, increasing to $80,235 next year. WildSmart funding in 2023 is $70,458 and jumps to $72,572 in 2024. The Biosphere works with the Town of Canmore, MD of Bighorn, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas with WildSmart programming.
The bylaw was amended in April to have higher fines for a first offence of $1,000 for a commercial waste violation and $5,000 for a second offence. A third offence is $10,000, disposal of dangerous goods is $1,000 and disposal of demolition, renovation and construction waste is $400.
According to a staff report, proactive patrols and extensive education is being done within the Canmore business community since the bylaw was approved, adding the municipality is seeing businesses comply with the revised changes in the bylaw.
Caitlin Miller, the Town’s manager of protective services, said municipal enforcement’s goal is to "gain compliance with established bylaws.”
However, she said that with higher fines comes a greater likelihood they will be contested, go to court and add legal expenses and staff time, giving an example where the Town went to court for a commercial waste infraction, but the company ultimately pleaded guilty and was given six to 12 months to pay the fine.
Meanwhile, a black bear was recently killed by provincial wildlife officers for public safety reasons after eating crabapples in a resident’s backyard.
“We’re not trying to set these fines in order to raise revenue,” said Mayor Sean Krausert.
“We’re trying to deter or influence behaviour that is safer for humans and wildlife in our coexistence together. … Having the heavy fine as an incentive to obey rules because the potential outcome is so dire as we have recently seen with the euthanization of a black bear in our community.”
From 2017-22, the 34 warnings and 11 tickets were issued under commercial food waste bylaw. As of Oct. 3, there had been 13 warnings so far this year and eight tickets issued.
Town staff attribute the increase in tickets issued in 2023 to more proactive patrols as well as complaints about commercial waste not being properly disposed in bear-proof bins in response to the increased bear activity observed within the municipality last year.
Coun. Wade Graham raised issues with fine revenue going into general revenue, saying he fundamentally disagreed “with fines going into general revenue and supporting operations.”
However, Town staff said they are unable to track revenue by specific tickets. It was noted it was possible, but would take significant extra work for staff.
“Hearing back from admin that it would be far more complex and time-consuming than I think the benefit would result in, it is important information for us and one of the reasons I don’t think this is the direction we should head in as a result,” said Coun. Tanya Foubert.
On a 6-1 vote, Graham was unsuccessful in his attempt to have a report brought back to council at budget time on total fines collected, fine details including the number of fines in each category and a percentage of each category that council could assign.
“It isn’t best practice that fine revenue goes into operations. … There is an administrative burden of looking at these funds each month or quarter,” he said. “I’m looking to remove that burden to go to a once-a-year process at budget where we look at these funds and say ‘we had an increase in problem X’ and we can see that through the fines and fine totals and at that point in time, council can direct administration to put those funds in places that may help deal with these issues.
Graham argued it would provide greater transparency and better show specifically the fine breakdown.
“To me, that transparency to the public is meaningful. … These are philosophical ideas as to how you think this money be treated and where you can directly see it go or not go,” Graham said. “Right now, we see it go into general revenue and get parsed out accordingly somehow.”
Coun. Jeff Hilstad said the Town is already able to see concerns with bylaw compliance due to the total number of tickets handed out on specific issues.
“There’s the disconnect of looking at fines and they go to general operating (reserves) and you go ‘where are they going?’ It’s nice to see where they go, but I think a lot of times where we see how many tickets are being issued we address that,” he said. “We don’t need this to address that. We are already doing that when we see infractions in one area.”
Foubert said since year-end financial statements aren’t received until the first quarter, it would be unlikely to know the full fine total during the budget period that takes place at the end of each year.
“We’re not just doing it by targeting and directing fine revenue to program outcomes because fine revenue, in general, goes into general operating, it is already supporting the council outcome strategic priorities programs and services that we have as council and powered administration to deliver on a yearly basis,” she said, adding she’d be interested in continuing the discussion.
Mayor Sean Krausert echoed Foubert's comments, in that there is transparency with department breakdowns and “it’s not like it disappears into this general revenue stream and [is] deducted off.”
