Guelph bylaw enforcement officers are heading to Wellington North next year.
Township and city officials have agreed on a one-year pilot project that will see Guelph officers respond to bylaw complaints such as property standards, swimming pool enclosures, door-to-door sales and zoning infractions.
During Monday’s Wellington North council meeting, councillors signed on to the project, which will begin on Jan. 1, as the current process for filing a complaint is considered by many to be insufficient and lacks structure.
The current process for filing a complaint is to complete and sign a paper or online form and submit to Wellington North administration staff where it is then forwarded to the appropriate department for a follow up.
However, right now, there is no prescribed follow-up or tracking for the complainants to check the status of their complaint.
The proposal from the City of Guelph would include a Wellington North specific online complaint system or a geographic information system (GIS).
Through the proposed system, residents are able to report an issue and track the status of the complaint. If the complainant submits an email address, they will receive updates directly. For individuals without access to internet they can still phone in a complaint and the enforcement staff will upload it to the system.
Township staff anticipate more complaints as the township continues to grow and follow the provincial and county growth plans.
“As our community continues to grow, creating more close neighbours, more construction, more traffic, more noise, more animals, more cannabis, more pools, the frequency of complaints will increase. Arms length enforcement has many inherent advantages,” explained Darren Jones, chief building official for the township.
While the pilot is underway, there will be no impact to the City of Guelph’s own service delivery.
The township will pay for the services directly from its own budget. The 2021 budget for bylaw enforcement was approved at $58,000; with the pilot, council is anticipating an $11,000 increase for 2022.
According to the report submitted by Jones, township staff plan to make use of the municipal modernization funds to offset cost impacts. Shared service arrangements have also been promoted as part of the funding.
Mayor Andy Lennox and councillors Dan Yake, Lisa Hern, and Steve McCabe were in favour of the agreement. Coun. Sherry Burke was the only one who was not in favour.
