After fielding hundreds of additional complaints about uncleared sidewalks since the latest round of snow, the City of Vancouver says it has yet to ticket anyone.
Under city bylaws, residents and businesses must clear the sidewalks outside their property by 10 a.m. the day after a snowfall.
Albert Shamess, the city’s director of waste management and green operations, told Global News Wednesday that there had been about 300 complaints related to the latest snowstorm.
“For the most part people are quite cooperative and try and meet the requirements of the bylaw. Sometimes maybe beyond their control, they may need a little more time. That’s why we aren’t issuing the tickets the first day,” Shamess said.
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“We want to make sure we’re not penalizing them for situations beyond their control.”
Under the city’s process, after a complaint is received, a bylaw inspector will issue a warning notice to the resident. If the walkway still hasn’t been cleared within 24 hours, they can issue a $250 ticket. If the walkway still isn’t cleared after that, tickets can go as high as $750, a process that requires prosecution, Shamess explained.
He said often when the city receives a complaint, the walkways has been cleared before the inspector arrives the first time.
After Vancouver received its first major round of snow at the end of November, the city confirmed it had received about 900 complaints.
No tickets were issued on those complaints either. At the time, a spokesperson for the city said it preferred to focus on education rather than penalties during the first snowstorm of the season.
Shamess said the city handed out 279 tickets on about 1,500 complaints for over the entire winter season last year.
About two-thirds of those snow scofflaws cleaned up their walkways after being ticketed he said, while the city hit 97 with higher fines for failing to take action.