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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 30 ,2 02 0 | 4 two officers said, 'Good luck,' as if this was an im- possible request." Waterloo's director of enforcement services, Shayne Turner, conceded the bylaw is minimally en- forced - with fewer than 20 fines issued over the past decade, primarily in load- ing zones or drop-off/deliv- ery areas. He said Woodley's ex- change with officers was unfortunate, but under- lines challenges with the idling control bylaw that exempts some vehicles and is only in effect when the humidex is between 5C and 27C. To issue a ticket, by- law officers must watch a vehicle idle for three min- utes, often causing motor- ists to drive away. Turner believes it's a good time to review the by- law, but feels the education component is more practi- cal. Coun. Diane Freeman sympathized with the envi- ronmental concerns as she suffers from asthma caused by smog and pollu- tion. She said there is sig- nage posted at some recre- ation centres, but suggest- ed more public outreach with user groups. While Coun. Jeff Henry said he'd be looking at big- ger ticket items in the bud- get to get gas-guzzling cars off the road, Mayor Dave Jaworsky pointed to the fact almost half of the re- gion's carbon emissions fall under transportation. "Regardless of all the other things, idling is something we should be tackling," he said. Council has directed staff to take a look at up- dates to the idling control bylaw and to consider the implementation of a public education component "Broadly, when we're looking at municipal en- forcement, we do hear a lot from residents regarding monitoring of parking, of idling, of sidewalk snow clearing and dealing with these issues, which leads me to ask: Do we have the right complement of peo- ple focused on the appro- priate issues?" said Coun. Tenille Bonoguore, echo- ing the concern of several delegations who've come before council in recent months (including a con- tingent of local post-sec- ondary students, who voiced concerns about slow response times for rental housing com- plaints). During the presentation of his department's busi- ness plan on Monday, the city's community services commissioner, Mark Dykstra, outlined a num- ber of key objectives, in- cluding more measured services delivery. Bonoguore, however, noted that in some cases - as communicated by local residents - it can be days or weeks before officers get to a sidewalk complaint. "Will we be seeing an ac- tual target?" she asked. The plan for now is to begin tracking resolution times to determine what's reasonable, Turner re- plied, adding that industry standards are vague com- pared to other areas of gov- ernment service. "The challenge is we have no benchmarks to work with, so we're going to establish our own." Mobile technology im- provements are underway to speed up the process of dealing with complaints and Turner said inspec- tion fees for reoffenders of the sidewalk clearing by- law were instituted re- cently. A better way to deal with complaints out- side business hours is also in the works. Broader sidewalk snow clearing, route opti- mization as well as better bylaw enforcement are all being considered to en- hance service, Dykstra said. Yet, apart from a new supervisor role in parks, there are no signif- icant dollars earmarked for upgrades to staffing this year. At times, the city cur- rently has only one bylaw officer available to ad- dress sidewalk com- plaints, as secondments are straddled. Turner said resources will likely need to be add- ed in the long term, but that a key focus is having agility within bylaw, as opposed to more resourc- es in one area or another. He said the department needs to be flexible to deal with other challenges throughout the year. "Personally, I'm a little skeptical that bylaw (en- forcement) is going to be able to get us out of the challenges that we're dealing with when it comes to sidewalk clear- ing," commented Coun. Royce Bodaly. For Woodley, it's worth it when it comes to the en- vironment. "Isn't this what we most want? To lower our emissions and reduce our carbon footprint?" she asked council. "Isn't this what the kids who march on Fri- days are asking for ... they want their politicians and leaders, all of us, to work together to make impor- tant changes now." She said the fine of $75 for idling needs to stick. "We need more bylaw officers," Woodley told council. "We need to hire more bylaw people, that's the baseline," she added. "Because we need to start enforcing ... We have to take it seriously." STORY BEHIND THE STORY: City council has heard from various delegations in recent months who've complained about a lack of enforcement when it comes to sidewalk snow clearing, rental housing complaints and, more recently, idling vehicles. COUNCIL A local resident wants the city to stop blowing smoke when it comes to bylaw enforcement. Shutterstock image Local journalism makes a difference. Support us by registering at waterloochronicle.ca Continued from page 1 'REGARDLESS OF ALL THE OTHER THINGS, IDLING IS SOMETHING WE SHOULD BE TACKLING' "I asked when the no-idling bylaw would be enforced. They laughed at me." - Waterloo resident Sharon Woodley OUR LOCAL JOURNALISTS CAN TELL YOU READ US EVERY DAY AT WATERLOOCHRONICLE.CA