Excessive-idling bylaw sent to council for debate
After a day of public discussion, Edmonton's transportation and public works committee sent a proposed excessive-idling bylaw to city council for debate next week.
If passed, the bylaw would mean drivers will face a $250 fine if they're caught idling for longer than three minutes when the temperature is above –10 C.
More than a dozen people spoke to the proposal at city hall on Tuesday.
Everyone who presented was in favour of the general idea of a bylaw, but some felt it should be stricter and called for councillors to set the benchmark for legal idling at a temperature below –10 C.
Willow Austin, a Grade 8 student at Victoria School and a member of the group EcoAir, took issue with comments made by one city councillor about the manner in which the bylaw will be enforced.
"City councillor Tony Caterina was quoted as saying that this proposed bylaw is pretty silly," she told the committee.
"It concerns me very much that the councillor feels that preserving the environment and reducing our carbon footprint would be considered silly. I hope that that the city makes the right decision."
The city won't use bylaw officers for enforcement. Instead, it plans to rely on citizens to make complaints and provide evidence to back them up.
Caterina has said he will not support the bylaw because he believes it will be too difficult to enforce. He favours the use of a public education campaign to cut down on idling.
But Shelia Risbaud told councillors on the committee she didn't think public education campaigns work that well.
"My own experience is based on some signs that we put up in our school three years ago asking parents to stop their engines while they pick up their children," she said.
"Three years later, I can say that our attempt at public education has been a failure. Parents are still idling.... So I really feel that a bylaw would give us the extra oomph, the teeth that we need."
After hearing submissions from the public and asking city administration some questions, councillors on the committee voted to send the proposed bylaw to council for a debate next week.
Emergency vehicles, armoured vehicles that are being loaded or unloaded and vehicles that need to run in order for their ventilation systems to clear windows of condensation are some of the proposed exceptions to the bylaw.
Last fall, the city held public meetings, stakeholder meetings and posted an online questionnaire to gather opinions on the idling issue.
The majority of the 622 people who participated in the consultations wanted an anti-idling bylaw, according to a report from city administration. Only 10 per cent of respondents said a bylaw was not needed.