Council has voted to draft a bylaw that will allow backyard fireworks on select holidays in London, Ont.
Current permitted days include Victoria Day and Canada Day. Council voted to direct staff to draft a fireworks bylaw that would see Diwali and Lunar New Year as permitted days as well.
It would also decrease the number of days allowed to sell fireworks in London from seven to five and increase the current fines for breaking the fireworks bylaw.
The other option for the bylaw would have seen the sale of consumer fireworks outright banned, only allowing permitted fireworks to be discharged.
Since the draft bylaw won’t be ready before Diwali, council also directed staff not to enforce the current bylaw and to permit the sale of commercial fireworks during the preceding seven days.
City staff presented the potential options for a firework bylaw at a community and protective services committee meeting on Aug. 15. Public input was taken prior to the committee debate, lasting three hours.
Those who spoke during the public meeting portion were split on the issue, and an online survey that received 1,635 responses saw 52.2 per cent favouring allowing fireworks on certain holidays and 47.8 per cent favouring outright banning them.
“There’s been a lot of discussion around this, a lot of public engagement,” said Coun. Susan Stevenson, who supported the bylaw.
“Part of building community is trusting that we will be respectful, that we’ll be honouring each other and that we can get together and have some fun.”
Opponents to the bylaw argued that fireworks are disruptive and negatively affect the environment.
Coun. Sam Trosow voted against, hammering home the environmental detriment fireworks pose.
“They leave trash, they leave chemicals. And where do those chemicals go? I think that what we’re doing is we’re overlooking a very fundamental point here. And that is number one, fireworks are dangerous. Fireworks have a devastating effect on the environment.”
Coun. Hadleigh McAlister brought up that not banning consumer fireworks would cause enforcement issues down the road.
“I think the banning of backyard fireworks actually addresses a lot of the concerns that I’ve heard from my constituents,” he said.
The vote passed 10 to five, with Couns. Hopkins, Ferreira, McAllister, Franke, and Trosow opposing.
Councillors will be able to debate the matter of fireworks again when the draft bylaw when it comes to the Community and Protective Services Committee sometime this winter.
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