Councillors prepare to realign wobbly shopping cart bylaw

Civic Centre administrators have installed new wheels on a draft shopping cart bylaw that City Council rejected six weeks ago.

MacGyvered by assistant city solicitor Melanie Borowicz-Sibenik, chief building official Freddie Pozzebon and director of public works Susan Hamilton-Beach, the new draft no longer allows private property owners to be fined up to $5,000 just because someone abandoned a stolen cart at their place.

Instead, it places the legal onus for errant shopping carts on business owners and, to a lesser extent, on people removing them from store property.

If approved by City Council on Monday, the following prohibitions will be applied:

• no business owner shall allow or permit the removal of a shopping cart from the business owner’s premises
• no business owner shall allow or permit a shopping cart owned or used by their business to be abandoned on any property (city or private) outside of the business owner’s premises
• no person shall remove a shopping cart from a business owner’s premises and/or otherwise place, leave, deposit or stop a shopping cart on any property outside of the business owner’s premises

The proposed bylaw would be enforced by city officials including chief building official Pozzebon.

The city will be authorized to pick up abandoned carts that are considered to pose a liability risk on city property or roads, with costs added to the tax bill of offending businesses that don't pay them.

Businesses or individuals violating the bylaw can be fined up to $5,000.

Each day that an offence is committed or permitted to continue will be considered as a separate offence.

A court may also issue an order prohibiting further repeats of the offence, with charges of breaching a court order possible for anyone not getting the message.

"Currently, public works operational staff collect problematic carts and ultimately dispose of such at the expense of the taxpayer," says a report prepared for Monday's City Council meeting.

"Hundreds of carts are typically retrieved in the winter season given the liability created with the interference of maintenance equipment."

"It is anticipated that this effort will be reduced and thus the expense to the taxpayer minimized as compliance increases," the report states.

Subject to council's approval, the bylaw won’t come into effect until Sept. 7 to allow businesses time to comply.

Monday's City Council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.