Saskatoon city council could vote on Monday whether or not to change the city’s backyard fire pit bylaw.
Council voted 6-5 in December to restrict the use of fire pits to between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. CT, with the final vote scheduled for today to give administration time to draft the proposed bylaw.
However Mayor Charlie Clark told Global News that vote could be pushed back to March.
One reason, Clark said, is that there are other reports on fire pits set to come to city council in March, one which will look at the possibility of requiring people to register fire pits.
“I have heard from some councillors an interest in possibly deferring this discussion until March so we can just do it all at once,” Clark told Global News on Monday.
There has been a lot of push-back to the proposed change.
One online petition against the move has over 10,000 signatures and at least two city councillors have taken to Twitter urging people to continue the pressure against changing the bylaw.
Both Hill and Zach Jeffries argue that proper enforcement of the existing bylaw is a better way to go, with Hill tweeting after the December vote the change could be the start of a slippery slope.
The change is seen as a compromise for those who say smoke from the fire pits bother them.
Another wrinkle is the fact the fire department only issued a single fine in 2016 after receiving just under 200 complaints.
Fire pits that don’t comply with the current bylaw can be put out by firefighters.