New fees for open burn violations

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — Residents burning in their backyard without an open burn permit will now have a new fee structure when it comes to charges issued for burning without said permit.

Prior to 2020, anyone caught burning without a permit was subject to a fine of $125, issued by the municipality.

In budget deliberations for 2020, council passed a bylaw authorizing new fees for burning without a permit within the municipality. Those fees have been in effect for the entire year and some residents were upset by the invoice they received.

A $250 fee was issued in 2020 if you were burning without a permit within regular business hours and the duty officer had to make a visit to your property. If it was after hours, you were subject to a $477 fee (plus HST) for a visit from the entire duty squad.

With complaints coming in from residents about the fees, council was given three options to choose from to help the situation.

In the end they settled on option three, which allows for just a $125 fee to be invoiced to the property owner for a first offence, provided they are not burning any illegal items. After that, they would be subject to the regular fees mentioned above.

This option allows for those who perhaps did not know about the burning bylaws to get some relief when it comes to fees.

JOHN HAMMOND

It’s important to note that an open burn permit is required anywhere in the municipality and those permits are available for $20 per year. Anyone who previously had a permit was given an extension this year because of COVID.

In 2019, there were 420 open burn permits issued in Leamington and so far in 2020, that number has dropped to 165.

Leamington Fire Chief Andrew Baird spoke on the issue to council and informed them that many of the calls came in through 9-1-1, which prompts a full response from the fire department, pulling valuable resources away from other, more urgent issues.

The fees were put in place this year to recoup some of the lost dollars from the fire department needing to attend these burn complaints.

According to administration, so far in 2020, they’ve issued 26 invoices for burning without a permit, resulting in eight of them being invoiced for $250 plus tax, while the other 18 were invoiced for $477 plus tax, with the entire duty squad attending.

The new fee structure will be set up retroactively, so those who have already paid those fees will be reimbursed (minus the $125) if this was their first offence.

The burning bylaw has been in place since 2010.

Councillor John Hammond, also a firefighter, suggested raising the cost of the permit from $20 to help recoup costs for the fire department rolling out their trucks and personnel for such complaints.

Councillor Paul Tiessen suggested that after 10 years, everyone should know about the burn permits and perhaps a promotional campaign should be undertaken by the town.