{"id":28612,"date":"2021-01-28T15:11:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=28612"},"modified":"2021-01-28T15:11:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:11:40","slug":"enforcing-covid-orders-proving-difficult-for-bylaw-department-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/enforcing-covid-orders-proving-difficult-for-bylaw-department-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Enforcing COVID orders proving difficult for Bylaw department: Town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Enforcing Provincial orders related to COVID-19 is proving difficult due to a lack of framework, according to municipal staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the message delivered to lawmakers last week at a Special Council meeting held to discuss the Town\u2019s response to the global pandemic so far and new efforts related to stay-at-home orders issued earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Techa van Leeuwen, Aurora\u2019s Director of Corporate Services, the Town\u2019s Bylaw Department will \u201cnot be able to enforce the stay-at-home order due to the lack of enforcement framework that is in place and the individuals\u2019 judgement for leaving the residence as they determine what is essential for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur enforcement efforts will be focused on non-compliant businesses and outdoor social gatherings above the limit of five people,\u201d she told Council last Tuesday night. \u201cUnder the declaration of the Provincial Emergency, municipal law enforcement officers have been granted additional powers and have the authority to require individuals to identify themselves. If the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has been committed, they also have the authority to temporarily close premises where an event or gathering exceeds the limits under the Reopening Ontario Act\u2026 and they have the authority to disperse crowds where non-compliance is observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf voluntary compliance is not achieved for any of these issues, Bylaw Services will require police assistance as we don\u2019t have the ability to detain individuals or use any force at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, she added, a Regional task force was established at the onset of the pandemic with the mandate of bringing forward a \u201cconsistent and coordinated\u201d approach to enforcement across York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInitially, this task force was comprised of the nine municipal enforcement units and York Regional Police,\u201d said Ms. van Leeuwen. \u201cDuring the second wave, additional governmental agencies joined the group and that includes Public Health, the Ministry of Labour, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, and even the Ministry of Education has been occasionally involved and the Regional Solicitor\u2019s office has also been involved in those meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese meetings occur weekly and the purpose is to address emerging issues and coordinate enforcement activities so we are avoiding duplication of efforts and increasing coverage across the Region. We are working proactively with our partners to conduct proactive blitzes and also joint inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Ms. van Leeuwen\u2019s presentation, Councillors said more needed to be done on enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner, for instance, said they wanted compliance \u201cbut we don\u2019t want bylaw officers to get hurt in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to Councillor Gaertner\u2019s concerns was CAO Doug Nadorozny who agreed the enforcement tools Aurora has in its arsenal are limited. Local bylaw officers are allowed to issue tickets for violations, but other responsibilities lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there is a problem, you saw the Ministry of Labour has been involved. They have also been doing their own proactive visits. We have a lot of resources we can turn to for\u2026problem areas. We generally try to lead with education where we can, which would be the first port of call. After that, we would simply apply a fine and charge the businesses and if it was more egregious we would keep ramping it up. If we have to involve Police, we can, but there are also other places like the Health Authority as well as the Ministry of Labour that have done joint enforcement with us and I am sure would participate if we had problem sites.\u201d
From the perspective of Mayor Tom Mrakas, education is the right approach for Aurora\u2019s Bylaw Department to take, at the moment, but talks continue at the Region on further measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone knows what the rules are,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, they change at times but pretty much everyone knows what the rules are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere needs to be more discretion. If it is the first time [for a violation], yes, let\u2019s educate them, but if they are a constant repeat offender, they need to be ticketed. It needs to be known it is not allowed, that they are in violation, [and] it is a public health risk and we can\u2019t stand for that. Therefore, all of us \u2013 and it is not just us, all across the Region and all across the Province \u2013 absolutely education first but if you\u2019re a repeat offender, you\u2019re getting hit with a ticket and that is coming from Public Health, that is coming from the York Regional Police, and that is coming right from the Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe, as Council, do not instruct bylaw and we also don\u2019t interfere with the Provincial offences. I think that is very important for everyone to have an understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
<\/strong>Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enforcing Provincial orders related to COVID-19 is proving difficult due to a lack of framework, according to municipal staff. This was the message delivered to lawmakers last week at a Special Council meeting held to discuss the Town\u2019s response to the global pandemic so far and new efforts related to stay-at-home orders issued earlier this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28612","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\/p3D2k4-7ru","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 04:28:47","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\/28612","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=28612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}