REGINA -- Regina city council has unanimously called for a report that could lead to changes for enforcement efforts around illegal garbage dumping.
The motion, brought forward by councillors Daniel LeBlanc and Andrew Stevens, called for city administration to find a strategy for increasing fines and prosecution of landlords and offenders for illegal dumping and repeat violation of city bylaws.
Orion Paradis, a Heritage resident, spoke as a delegation and told council the current approach primarily focused on tenants is not working.
“They’re not going to be dealing with this,” Paradis said. “So by saying that what you’re saying is that the neighbours are just going to have to deal with it forever because the tenants won’t and the landlord doesn’t have any responsibility so the buck stops nowhere, it stops in my yard. I clean it up.”
The motion requests administration explore the cost and feasibility of introducing summary offence ticketing for bylaw enforcement officers, reducing the timeline for property owners to remove garbage and debris and the potential to give waste pickup crews bylaw enforcement authority. It also calls for exploration of more frequent pickup for areas with higher-than-average street and alley waste like North Central and Heritage, possible community dumpsters for those same areas and increased support for community clean-up initiatives.
“We can see the garbage in the back lanes, and we know these are beautiful neighbourhoods that deserve to look beautiful,” Mayor Sandra Masters said. “IF the city needs to address it in terms of looking at resources, waste disposal, garbage pickup, cleanup, bylaw enforcement as it relates to illegal dumping, we need to ensure we’re putting teeth into our bylaw enforcement and following through.”
LeBlanc noted many of the issues are rooted in larger societal problems like poverty, especially when it comes to larger items like mattresses ending up in abandoned lots instead of the garbage dump.
“That’s not because people don’t care about their communities, that’s because they don’t have the means to get rid of it and I think the city needs to step in and do something about that to make sure these are clean areas,” LeBlanc said.
The motion initially asked administration to consider adding more needle drop-off bins in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, but that aspect was taken out of the motion after both councillors agreed it would be addressed by a separate report coming back to council later this year.
Council voted unanimously in favour of ordering the amended report. Administration plans to bring it back before council in the fourth quarter of 2021.
