Article content
Councillors on two city committees have given their approval for a new, tougher Ottawa idling bylaw that makes it illegal to idle a vehicle for more than one minute except in very cold or very hot weather.
The bylaw passed easily Thursday at a joint meeting of the environment and climate change committee, and the emergency preparedness and protective services committee, despite some objections that it is too difficult to enforce and would do little to reduce air pollution.
Article content
The bylaw must still be approved by the full city council at its Oct. 2 meeting.
The new bylaw toughens the three-minute idling limit that’s been in place since 2007 and has been overtaken by stricter measures now in favour in other major cities.
The new rules make it illegal to idle a vehicle for more than one minute in any 60-minute period, with an allowance of up to five minutes in the winter to defrost windows and warm the vehicle and in the summer when the temperature is over 27 C to allow the air conditioner to do its work.
Those with a medical note for themselves or a passenger that says they must be in a climate-controlled vehicle are exempt as are a number of other vehicles such as emergency vehicles responding to an emergency, ambulances that must power medical equipment, police cars that must keep their computer powered up, armoured cars, farm vehicles doing normal farming work and mobile workshops.
The bylaw will apply if a vehicle is idling “strictly for the operator’s convenience” rather than one of the situations above.
The fine is $500 but can soar to up to $100,000 for repeated and egregious violations, a nod to the harm caused by hundreds of idling trucks that filled downtown during the illegal occupation in February 2022.
Article content
But the bylaw has its critics, including Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown, who said it’s too difficult to enforce. A bylaw officer could face a 75-kilometre drive to the far reaches of his ward to handle a simple idling complaint, Brown said.
A motion by Brown to study how well the existing bylaw has worked and for an accounting of the cost of preparing the new one was easily defeated.
The current bylaw is rarely enforced, according to the city. Since it came into effect, the city has fielded about 270 complaints annually. Of those, bylaw officers have given an average of 10 warnings and issued seven tickets a year. In about 20 per cent of the complaints, by the time a bylaw officer arrived, there was nothing to see.
Share this article in your social network