Council Recap: Fireworks Over Fireworks

To bylaw or not bylaw, that is the question.

In this Thursday edition of the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, we go in-depth with the debates and decisions about this week’s city council meeting or meetings. Your regularly scheduled Tip Sheet will be in your inbox first thing Friday morning!

Committee of the Whole Meeting – October 1, 2024

Fireworks about fireworks? Little bit, but before we get there, Committee of the Whole had at least one other major piece of business.

The first report concerned the billing transition for water, wastewater and stormwater from Alectra Utilities, who presently handle it, to the City of Guelph. Alectra announced that they would no longer be collecting those fees on the City’s behalf in 2023, and Guelph staff have been looking at options about how best to handle that. Out of a couple of initial options, it was decided that moving billing in-house would be the best and most cost-efficient, but that could still cost an extra $700,000 to implement.

Why the bump? Would you believe postage? That’s not the only additional cost, but it is a pretty big one. There will also be some extra costs when it comes to meter reading and bill presentment, and to cover those additional costs they’re looking at a variety of options. The City is working with Alectra and other municipalities presently navigating this transition to share information and find potential synergies.

Committee also had concerns about how his would affect hydro customers, especially with the potential introduction of user fees. Staff noted that they are exploring all options, including the use of reserves, and noted that the fees they’re looking at implementing might only apply to new customers who will be asked to pay an activation fee when they sign up for a new account like one might with other utilities. Committee received the report, and staff will continue the work.

There were a few questions about the bylaw review of residential security cameras and the direction to create optional guidelines, and they were mostly about how no one was planning on banning the devices or allowing unfettered surveillance on neighbours either. If you have concerns about your neighbour’s security cameras, you can always reach out to Guelph Police or your local city councillor.

Then came the fireworks. The proposal from City staff would be to create a permit system for anyone that wants to set off fireworks on the three approved days they’re allowed; you would need to pay $100 and observe a minimum safe distance from homes or “vulnerable occupancies” like schools or care facilities, plus have a licensed display supervisor on hand, liability insurance, safety inspections, and an animal safety management plan.

Essentially, once you fill out the paperwork and make the appropriate arrangements, you can buy and set off fireworks, so this is not technically a ban.

Still, almost all the delegates were the owners of stores that sell fireworks or were representatives of the fireworks’ lobby. It was their assertion that the City’s proposed bylaw was too heavy-handed while at the same time being bound to fail as people ignore the regulations and just buy fireworks from retailers outside of Guelph and set them off as they see fit. There were also some calls for cultural sensitivity since fireworks are key to many different special occasions, from Diwali to the Lunar New Year. Staff confirmed that the City’s equity and inclusion team were taking part in the work.

Committee had issues of clarification about the cost of the permit fee, who will develop the animal safety plan, and the qualifications of a licensed display supervisor. Fire Chief Brian Arnold was on hand and reiterated his service’s preference for a total ban on fireworks, which is something that fire chiefs around Canada have been pushing the federal government to do. Arnold noted that in the last three years in Guelph the fire department was called to 29 incidents where fireworks were improperly discharged and/or disposed of, including one significant house fire.

Many councillors were concerned about balance, this seemed like an awful lot of regulation for three days out of the year, and the process to set off just a few fireworks seems overly complicated. Any streamlining of the process might be worked out as staff develop the bylaw itself, but as Mayor Cam Guthrie observed, the status quo just isn’t working for the community, and something needs to change.

There were a couple of people around the horseshoe who said that the time had come for a total ban, some agreed with the mayor that there needs to be some kind of additional regulation but maybe not something this expansive, and others believed that this was a good compromise position between a total ban and the current Wild West of fireworks procurement that we have right now.

After a couple of comments about the potential legal liability and how public education will have to play a part in the future bylaw’s success, committee approved the report and the direction by a vote of 7-5 with Mayor Guthrie and Councillors Dan Gibson, Michele Richardson, Christine Billings and Ken Yee Chew all voting against.

Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.

The next meet of city council is the Planning Meeting of City Council is on Tuesday October 8 at 6 pm. You can see the agenda on the City’s website here, and you have until tomorrow at 10 am to register with the clerks office as a delegate or to send a correspondence.

For more information on Guelph City Council meetings, from agendas to live-tweets to recaps, you can visit that page on Guelph Politico here.

Finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!