{"id":20397,"date":"2018-04-18T20:20:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20397"},"modified":"2018-04-25T21:22:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T01:22:12","slug":"property-rights-take-step-in-the-right-direction-after-council-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/property-rights-take-step-in-the-right-direction-after-council-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Property rights take \u201cstep in the right direction\u201d after Council vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was hailed by some members of Council as \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d and, last week, new measures on how local bylaw officers may enter onto your property took that all-important stride.
\nLast Tuesday, Council ratified their decision made at the previous week\u2019s Committee meeting to start a one-year pilot project which will carry out a series of changes designed to combat complaints over right of entry.
\nChanges were first proposed this past February, but were since honed further following Council input.
\nFurther modifications are expected later this spring when the bylaw department will propose an official registry of vacant buildings and a new set of rules on how these properties should be kept.
\nIn the future, entry onto private property \u2013 rear or side yard, as defined in the bylaw \u2013 may be denied by the property owner or occupant. As such, Bylaw Officers will need to consult with the Director and together a decision will be made on whether or not to seek a search warrant, depending on the nature of the complaint.
\nBylaw will no longer be entering onto vacant private property without consent to cut grass in response to neighbour complaints, either.
\nAt the Committee level, Councillor Paul Pirri voted in favour of the recommendations, stating that his final opinion might change in the intervening week.
\nHe said, at the time, that the stats just weren\u2019t there to show that this was a problem Council needed to address and, by the time last week\u2019s Council meeting came about, he gave the measures a firm no.
\n\u201cI was fine with it being a recommendation to Council, but I wasn\u2019t sure how I was going to vote,\u201d he reiterated. \u201cI just wanted to justify that I won\u2019t be voting for it and the reason for that, as I stated last week, I think we need to collect more data to know if there is a problem or not. I recognize this will be collecting data, but to make a decision before the data is collected, I am not 100 per cent comfortable with that position. I am happy to vote against this now and see how the pilot works its way [through].\u201d
\nWhile he said he understood Councillor Pirri\u2019s position, Councillor Tom Mrakas said support should come down to a \u201csimple\u201d question and answer: \u201cDo you believe that bylaw has a right to enter onto your private property without your consent \u2013 yes or no?\u201d
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s what it comes down to,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cShould they get a warrant? Regardless of how much data you get, analyse and look at, that\u2019s the same question that is going to be asked and you\u2019re going to have to answer. My answer is, no, you should get a warrant if you don\u2019t have that consent, and that\u2019s what is in front of us. I am in favour of it.\u201d
\nA similar viewpoint was offered by Councillor Harold Kim, who made an effort to look at both sides of the equation.
\n\u201cI am not sure it is that simple [as] if you\u2019re comfortable allowing bylaw onto your property or not,\u201d said Councillor Kim. \u201cIt\u2019s like saying, do you believe in giving up some of your freedoms for the overall safety of the public? I\u2019m willing to do that. It\u2019s hard to go for one side or the other, I am sure we can go back and forth\u2026and I am in favour of the motion.
\n\u201cThis is a one year pilot and I think that is the key thing here. During those 12 months, staff will outline some key facts that they\u2019re going to be collecting, and collecting the information is going to be hugely important in collecting the facts and [whether] we\u2019re going to continue on with this indefinitely or not.
\n\u201cI am sure Aurora being the leader it is, we\u2019re going to be looked at by other municipalities to see whether this will work or not. I am curious as well. That is the reason why I am all for this. I know it might be painful for staff, but it is going to be a 12 month experiment or project that is going to be well worthwhile.\u201d
\nThere are, within the new rules, provisions that bylaw might enter onto a property if there is an emergency situation, or if they perceive there might be a hazard or a safety issue.
\nThis was a point both Mayor Geoff Dawe and Councillor Wendy Gaertner were keen to stress.
\n\u201cI do believe it comes down to a question of property rights, with the caveat that if something is happening and you need to take action, that you have that capability,\u201d said Mayor Dawe.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was hailed by some members of Council as \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d and, last week, new measures on how local bylaw officers may enter onto your property took that all-important stride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5iZ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 14:03:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}