Council OKs idling bylaw

City council has given the green light to an anti-idling bylaw for Greater Sudbury.

In about a year from now, residents will be expected to turn off their vehicles after two minutes of idling. This will be preceded by a one-year education component. The bylaw was passed 10-3 in a recorded vote on Feb. 14.

There is no figure yet as to how much it will cost the city to conduct its one-year education component, nor is there a timeline as to when that information will be available. That will all be established through the planning stages, the city's communications department said.

Originally, the city's operations committee had tabled a one-minute anti-idling bylaw effective by the end of January 2013. That was to be preceded by an education component, as well. That proposed bylaw was sent back to the operations committee for further discussion and development.

Ward 2 Coun. Jacques Barbeau, who chairs the operations committee, continues to stress the most important part of the puzzle is the education component. He also said the bylaw will target “unnecessary” idling, where if an habitual idler causes problems, there could be possible repercussions.

The bylaw will largely be enforced by complaints received from ratepayers; however, with only six bylaw enforcement officers and an average response time of about a week, it will be difficult for the city to enforce the bylaw, a common concern shared by many councillors around the table, as well as many residents.

No one should expect that bylaw officers will be doing all of the enforcement, and the new bylaw is going to be very much like the ATV bylaw, where the city counts on the residents to help enforce it, “much like we did with many other bylaws,” Barbeau said.

Tickets for idling will be issued under the Provincial Offences Act, and would go to the registered owner of the vehicle, regardless of who is driving it. Fines could be anywhere from $50 to $150, similar to what is charged in other municipalities that have adopted anti-idling bylaws.

Bill Lautenbach, general manager of growth and development for the city, said first instances will receive a warning from bylaw officers.

Tickets won't be issued until the idling becomes habitual. The true intent of the bylaw is to change behaviours of idlers to benefit all residents of Greater Sudbury. The city will also look at developing an option to allow residents to appeal tickets.

The bylaw contains a number of exemptions including emergency vehicles, transit vehicles, extreme cold weather alerts or heat advisories, and idling to defrost, defog or de-ice a windshield.

Further exemptions would include a person who has a medical doctor's certificate stating that, for medical reasons, the person requires the temperature or humidity to be maintained within a certain range and the idling of the vehicle is necessary to achieve those levels. Drive-thrus are also listed under the exemptions.

In a staff report to city council, it was stated that Canadian motorists idle their vehicles an average of six to eight minutes a day, which not only contributes to smog and climate change, but also wastes fossil fuels.

Natural Resources Canada estimates that if Canadian motorists avoided idling for just three minutes a day, over the year they would collectively save 630 million litres of fuel and $756 million in fuel costs (assuming a fuel cost of $1.20/L).

Those savings translate into a reduction of 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of taking 320,000 vehicles off the road for an entire year.

Mercedez Quinlan, a volunteer member of Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, said she breathed a sigh of relief following council's decision, because throughout the debate, she wasn't sure which way it was going to go.

“I'm elated,” Quinlan said. “All this work has been for some good.”

She said she can envision a time in the not-too-distant future when people turn off their vehicles before allowing them to idle for long periods, and when children have discussions with their parents about the ill effects associated with idling.

Only three councillors voted against the bylaw.

Ward 6 Coun. Andre Rivest said not allowing people to warm up their vehicles in the cold winter mornings could lead to an increase in the number of collisions. He said not everyone will fully grasp the bylaw, or the fact that the Highway Traffic Act, which allows residents to clear their windshield of ice via allowing their vehicle to warm up, will take precedence over the bylaw.

Ward 8 Coun. Fabio Belli called the discussion “a waste of time,” and said council has better things to do than talk about something that addresses only a small percentage of the population. He called for the written recorded vote.

Ward 11 Coun. Terry Kett again brought forward a motion to have a two-year education component and a three-minute idling bylaw, a motion that was defeated the night before at the Feb. 13 operations committee meeting, and was again defeated by council. He said he wants to see the bylaw be successful, but he doesn't think it's something that can be done in only a year.

“We live in northern Ontario, and I just want that to fit into this bylaw,” he said. “The goal is commendable, but I don't like the way we're going about it.”

“There will be people for (the bylaw) and people against it, and we have to look at the benefits to our community and to our residents,” Barbeau said. “The bylaw, at the end of the day, is the right thing. This is only the first step.”

Posted by Arron Pickard