City shopping cart bylaw now in effect

The City of Sault Ste. Marie's shopping cart bylaw officially went into effect earlier this week.

The bylaw includes a number of restrictions, including the removal of carts from a businesse property being prohibited and fines of up to $5,000 per day for businesses that don't comply with the bylaw.

“Effective immediately, businesses can be fined for having shopping carts left on sidewalks, boulevards and paths throughout our City,” said Susan Hamilton Beach, Director of Public Works and Engineering Services in a prepared statement. “We recognize that business owners face great challenges in the collection of their carts and we will work with these businesses to provide practical controls and a system to assist in facilitating the pick-up of abandoned shopping carts.”

Also as part of the bylaw, owners of businesses that have shopping carts are required to develop and file a plan with the City that identifies measures the business plans to take to keep carts on their property or to retrieve them.

The plan was also expected to include "details of the business owner’s operation and timeline of how carts shall be retrieved and returned to the business owner’s premises, a description of the owner’s carts including any easily identifiable features and the contact person and information for the business owner who will be called if carts are found off site."