MOOSE JAW — City council will not pursue a bylaw that restricts when residents can use alleys, parks and pathways overnight because it says the municipality lacks the resources to enforce the policy.
After receiving direction from council in May, administration presented a proposed policy during the Sept. 23 executive committee meeting. After a contentious 50-minute discussion, council voted 6-1 to receive and file the document — essentially, to drop it.
Coun. Kim Robinson was opposed.
Draft bylaw
The draft bylaw was based on curfews that Prince Albert —midnight to 6 a.m. — and North Battleford — 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. — have imposed for accessing back alleys, explained Andrew Svenson, city solicitor and director of legislative and enforcement services.
Furthermore, the proposed bylaw would restrict overnight access to almost every alley, park and pathway in Moose Jaw — not just the downtown, he continued. Also, the draft document contained exemptions that apply to certain people, although that list likely required further additions to reflect council’s intentions.
Svenson also pointed out that, unlike North Battleford, Moose Jaw has no community safety officers or bylaw enforcement officers who work overnight, so the Moose Jaw Police Service would have to handle situations.
Police response
Staff Sgt. Trish Seaman told council that the proposed bylaw would create an influx of complaints and enforcement problems. She spoke with an officer from Prince Albert and learned that that agency received a major increase in calls when the new bylaw came in.
Regardless of whether council approved the bylaw, the MJPS would continue to work to make Moose Jaw a safer community.
“… We want to be proactive and not just reactive. And with this bylaw, it may be more reactive than proactive,” Seaman added.
The MJPS does not have the ability to write bylaw tickets, although that would be another tool for police to use, the staff sergeant said.
Police already stop and conduct “contact interviews” with people they find in prohibited areas — such as dark alleys — and encourage them to move along, so a bylaw isn’t necessary for those activities, she continued.
Officers could issue bylaw tickets, but many people are impoverished and wouldn’t be able to pay, while they would clog up the court system, Seaman said. However, the police rely on the Trespass to Property Act, while their presence is usually a sufficient deterrent.
Police can charge trespassers with Criminal Code offences if they find such people in backyards tampering with property, she added.
Seaman also said police have dedicated foot patrols that move through Crescent Park and the downtown regularly. Since June, the MJPS has conducted roughly 276 foot patrols in that green space.
‘Heads in the sand’
Robinson said he presented the two bylaw-related motions in May after joining a group called the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP). Moreover, he spoke with RCMP officers in North Battleford and learned they needed extra tools to stop people or move them along without facing human rights complaints.
The councillor noted that Edmonton closes its parks from midnight to 6 a.m., which prevents people from sleeping in them.
“I think we’re in a very sad situation if I can’t move people out via bylaw and I just have to allow squatters … ,” he said. “So I guess we can keep our heads in the sand and not do anything like this and say we’re going to get too many calls.”
Robinson, who plans to run for mayor in the upcoming municipal election, said he may reconsider that decision if council can’t do anything and can only “sit back and let crime run rampant.”
After listening to his colleagues, Robinson said it was “obvious” that they just “wanted to roll over on this” issue.
Stop fearmongering
Coun. Dawn Luhning pushed back against Robinson’s comments, saying she was offended by his “roll over” comment.
“Honestly, that fearmongering needs to stop; it really does,” she said, noting that every community in Canada and North America is facing similar problems. However, she highlighted how positive the Little Chicago Show and Shine was for the community recently.
Luhning said she was not an expert and preferred to let the police and social services handle situations. Moreover, she didn’t think handing out tickets would help matters when people were dealing with mental illness, while the city didn’t have the manpower resources anyway.
Robinson rebutted by saying he had nine phone calls from people concerned about problems, while there were recent incidents where an armed standoff occurred on Manitoba Street East and an alleged homeless resident died in a car fire.
Luhning immediately stood and called a point of order, saying council shouldn’t comment on ongoing police investigations. Meeting chairman Coun. Jamey Logan concurred and told Robinson to cease speaking.
“You people can keep your head in the sand and believe it’s fearmongering if you want,” Robinson muttered.
Crescent Park concerns
Coun. Heather Eby said she knows residents are sleeping in Crescent Park because her mother has seen people there while walking in the morning. After learning that it’s not possible to move those people since there’s nowhere for them to go, she wondered how the bylaw would change that.
City manager Maryse Carmichael replied that she convened a meeting recently with emergency-related agencies to discuss the situation since winter is coming. They have some tools to act, while the fire department can make orders to remove tents if there are concerns about fire safety.
However, if there are no safety concerns and nowhere to put impoverished residents — if Willow Lodge shelter is full — then there’s little the city can do, she added.
Eby thought homeless encampments were “another sad testament” about losing Riverside Mission’s 10 beds, since sleeping there was likely better than in Crescent Park.
Enforcing the bylaw
Eby also expressed concern that, compared to North Battleford, Moose Jaw did not have community safety officers to enforce this proposed bylaw, nor did it have the resources to hire them. Conversely, the city’s bylaw enforcement officers work during the day and usually focus on weeds, garbage and property issues.
“There’s no point putting forward a bylaw that you cannot enforce. And we have a lot of bylaws in this city that are not enforced because we don’t have the resources,” she said.
Eby added that she wanted to see a made-in-Moose-Jaw policy created — similar to the police service’s anti-trespassing initiative — since this community did not have the demographics of the other two municipalities.
Influx of calls
Coun. Doug Blanc was concerned that if council restricted pathway use at night, then police may receive an overwhelming number of calls about people coming home late from work or a restaurant.
Blanc, also a member of the police board, used crime statistics to show that the MJPS had received 4.3-per-cent more calls year-over-year in August. Therefore, he worried that this bylaw would increase those calls from roughly 13,000 to 30,000 in a short period.
He pointed out that the proposed bylaw’s map includes “pretty well the entire city.” He didn’t want to lump all alleys, parks and pathways “in the same bucket” since the problem is downtown, which is where council should focus.
The councillor also said the proposed tickets would be $275, which he didn’t think the city or police would ever collect considering there is over $1 million in outstanding parking tickets.
Proactive agencies
Coun. Crystal Froese praised the police and other social agencies for being proactive, while she had a positive attitude about how the community was doing.
Meanwhile, she thought the proposed bylaw was redundant because the MJPS already had its anti-trespassing initiative and already patrolled alleys. She acknowledged that agencies may not be addressing problems as fast as residents want, but said the city doesn’t have the resources to address everything.
“I’m not disheartened by the way things are … . I’m not afraid to walk downtown in the evenings,” Froese said, adding she and her husband walked home to South Hill after Homestand ’24 and felt safe.
The next executive committee meeting is Monday, Oct. 7.
