There was near gridlock in Canmore council chambers on Tuesday night (Nov. 4) as elected officials debated at length a traffic and road use bylaw and then approved the document, thereby making idling vehicles illegal.
While council was well aware that enforcement of such a provision is almost impossible, the change was made to signal the community’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The reason this is in front of council is in the hope of reducing our impact on climate change,” said manager of public works Andreas Comeau. “That is the intent, and the other one is to demonstrate leadership.”
Mayor John Borrowman brought up the issue of enforcement, saying he was struggling with how bylaw peace officers will apply that section of the new bylaw.
“On the other hand, I support the intent and I know people have specifically been fighting this problem for years,” Borrowman said. “But it is a struggle.”
Manager of Bylaw Mandie Crawford said the new regulation may be contentious with some in the community, but the intent of staff is to educate as opposed to writing a bunch of tickets.
“This is not necessarily a proactive thing,” Crawford said. “We have the ability to exercise discretion and at least educate to a certain level.”
The bylaw does not apply to emergency vehicles, vehicles used for servicing public utilities, municipal or other government public works vehicles and towing service vehicles. Refrigeration and delivery vehicles along with taxis are also exempt – but they have to be on duty at the time. Buses and couriers, however, will have to follow the bylaw, which sets the limit for idling at five minutes.
“If approved we are going into uncharted territory and I’m not exactly sure what it is going to look like,” said manager of protective services Greg Burt.
Administration recommended a two-minute time limit, but Councillor Ed Russell put forward a successful motion to see it increased to five.
“I understand the intent we are trying to get across, but if we set it at two minutes, we are setting our bylaw staff up for all kinds of abuse,” he said.
The other area of debate in the bylaw was around bikes on sidewalks. The new bylaw allows children under the age of 12 to ride on sidewalks and an adult with them. However, the mayor expressed concern about that applying to Canmore’s Main Street.
“Just curious about Main Street,” he said. “Specifically, I would love to see us disallow bike riding on Main Street period. It is such a congested sidewalk already.”
Comeau explained that as the bylaw is written, and because the municipality placed “walk your bike” stencils on the sidewalk, that prohibits anyone including children from riding bikes.
That was good news for Coun. Joanna McCallum, who said there are seniors and disabled people in the community that she knows who will not come downtown because they are afraid of being knocked over.
“I think this is something we need to be jerks about,” said McCallum, adding instead of a $90 fine maybe bylaw should impound bikes. “I don’t see a lot of compliance.
“Our Main Street is too busy for that kind of action. I would say take the bike away at first pop.”
Comeau said community feedback around children riding on sidewalks was positive – 54 per cent of responses supported the change and 71 per cent felt 12 years was the appropriate age. A further 66 per cent supported parents or an adult being allowed to ride on the sidewalk with a child.
“We want to ensure that children feel safe and protected when they are riding bicycles and the other thing is that if they feel safe they will be encouraged to ride their bicycles,” he said.
Council also changed regulations around RV parking. The previous bylaw restricted RV parking on residential streets between 2 and 6 a.m. The new bylaw permits RV parking in front of a home for up to 36 consecutive hours.
There was also a change proposed that would prohibit vehicle washing in driveways with administration recommending the move to ensure contaminated water does not enter the storm water system.
The wording of the new clause was too restrictive for council, which voted to keep the old section that prohibits mud, slush or any non-biodegradable substance from draining into the stormwater system.
