Petty Harbour says it may reconsider Bay Bulls’ proposal down the road
By Chris Lewis | Vol. 13 No. 1 (January 8, 2020)
The Town of Petty Harbour recently received a letter from the nearby community of Bay Bulls, inquiring as to whether or not it would be on board with the idea of sharing the cost and services of a by-law enforcement and occupational health and safety officer.
This is something that has come up in previous meetings of council in Bay Bulls, including the final meeting of 2019 in which it was admitted that Bay Bulls was not having much luck in stirring up interest in the idea with its neighbouring communities.
However, in the letter addressed to the Town of Petty Habour, it was indicated they hope to have at least three other communities on board soon enough.
Although occupational health and safety and by-law enforcement are the services that Bay Bulls hopes to provide with the service, it was outlined in the letter that the services potentially available by hiring a shared worker are not limited to just those two areas.
Among the main responsibilities of such an officer would be ticketing, included under the by-law enforcement aspect of the role.
Ticketing is a subject that strikes a chord with Petty Harbour council, given that it has been fighting for the right to ticket vehicles along Main Road, which is currently managed by the provincial government.
In hopes of remedying this issue, and gaining the right to ticket along Main Road, Petty Harbour council has plans to meet with the Department of Municipal Affairs in the coming weeks.
“I was speaking with (Town Manager) Jennifer Aspell with the Town of Bay Bulls … and I told her that when we have that meeting with Municipal Affairs, we’d have a better understanding on where we stand with the ticketing, and whether or not we could actually make use of this in the coming year,” said Petty Harbour Chief Administrative Officer Stephanie Stack.
Mayor Samuel Lee pointed out the Town has budgeted around $2,500 to the RNC trafficking unit’s enhancement proposal, and worried that this shared service may create unnecessary complications with that.
The cost for the shared service pilot project proposed by the Town of Bay Bulls would come in at around $45 for every hour the officer would spend in the community.
Councillor David Green pointed out the RNC initiative was put in place more or less to get some extra RNC vehicles patrolling the roads on the Northeast Avalon, and not to have them out walking about the town and checking up on things, as a proposed municipal enforcement officer would supposedly do.
“This person would be dedicated for however many hours we would want a week, to come down and physically do whatever we needed them to do,” Stack said. “So, if we want them for three hours to drive back and forth and ticket people who are parked illegally, that’s what they’d be doing.”
However, Lee argued that until the Town has the right to issue tickets without the intervention of the provincial government, the service proposed by Bay Bulls would not be of much use to them.
“With regards to the program we’ve involved ourselves in with the RNC, hopefully that’s going to send more patrols down here, and hopefully, even if we don’t get the right to ticket, they will be able to do some when they are patrolling,” Lee said. “If we had that all in place, with the ticketing especially, then yes, we could use this (proposed municipal enforcement officer) for some jobs. But without that, what are we going to pay $45 an hour for? They wouldn’t be able to do much, really.”
While Petty Harbour council ultimately decided to reject the offer for now, councillors did agree it is something worth re-visiting in the future, once they have their internal ticketing problems sorted out.
A motion was carried unanimously that Petty Harbour would thank Bay Bulls for offering the shared service, and would reconsider the offer in the coming weeks following their meeting with the Department of Municipal Affairs.
