Monday, May 12, 2008

Corrigan blasts new bylaw plan

By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published Oct. 15, 2003


A new law that takes municipal bylaw enforcement out of the provincial court system is another example of provincial government downloading, Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan said last week.

"All this is is downloading," Corrigan said after the B.C. Liberals introduced a new Local Government Bylaw Enforcement Act in the legislature last Tuesday. "It'll take citizens out of the courts and a process that is democratic and fair, and put them into a situation of dealing with a non-legally-trained arbitrator.

"I think they just threw out the fair hearing," said Corrigan, a lawyer by trade.

But a press release from the provincial government said the change will ensure that minor bylaw disputes will be dealt with in a more timely, fair and effective way.

"Dealing with bylaw infractions like dog licensing and parking tickets at the local level will save time and money for both taxpayers and local governments," said B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant. "It will also avoid the expensive, time-consuming process of disputing minor bylaw tickets through the court system."

The new system will also allow the provincial courts to focus on more important cases, said the government press release.

But Corrigan said the change will reduce the costs for Victoria, while raising the price of bylaw enforcement for both municipal governments and citizens.

First off, municipalities will have to set up their own arbitration system for resolving bylaw disputes and, secondly, citizens could face additional fines if they challenge the bylaw and lose, Corrigan said.

"We (municipal governments) are creatures of statute, so they (the provincial government) can impose on us what they want," Corrigan said. "Next, they'll be downloading speeding tickets onto us. That's what the public can expect - speeding tickets decided by an arbitrator."

"They care less about a fair and impartial system then they do about the cost of the provincial government," he said. "Everything is the bottom line. The ministries are being challenged constantly to find better ways of getting rid of expenses, but they're not being challenged to be a better government."

While the specifics of the plan were not outlined in the last week's government press release, a discussion paper issued in June 2002 says the plan would work in the following manner:

Anyone who receives a notice of bylaw infraction must respond within 14 days, or else be deemed to have accepted the decision. To dispute a notice, the subject must first attempt to resolve the dispute with a municipally appointed resolution officer. If that first attempt at resolution is unsuccessful, the subject can then take their complaint to the new Local Government Forum.

Corrigan says Burnaby city council must now decide how to set up its resolution process and local government forum.

"We still have to enforce our parking bylaws, so we'll have to evaluate this," Corrigan said. "I don't know what we'll do at this point. Usually it's not until the government makes legislation that we discuss these issues and I don't know what discussion has gone on."

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