We can practically hear the laughter emanating from the rest of snowbound Canada as the Lower Mainland struggles with snow and ice.
Perhaps most embarrassing was the police having to be called to keep the peace at the “salt lines” in Vancouver where fire departments were distributing salt to those caught unprepared.
A friendly reminder: It’s your job to shovel and salt your sidewalk.
But despite hundreds, or thousands, of properties on the North Shore where the owner never bothered to shovel before everything turned to ice, not a single person or business has been fined by our three local governments.
Evidently, a few fractured wrists and bruised tailbones or keeping people shut in entirely is preferable to the political blowback of holding citizens accountable.
Municipalities prefer education, usually in the form of sending a letter or a bylaw officer for a quick chat. But education takes time and it doesn’t melt ice. We’d say the best lesson in compliance would be a stiff infraction notice.
Perhaps most egregious, the District of North Vancouver’s bylaw exempts single-family homeowners from shovelling at all. It’s a vestigial throwback to a time when urban planning centred around the automobile, even though all of our official community plans now stress the need to get people out of their cars.
The next big dump of snow and cold weather is now arriving.
We’d like to see our bylaw officers from all three municipalities put on the crampons and brave the sidewalks, handing out tickets to property owners who have forgotten that being Canadian sometimes means knowing which is the business end of a snow shovel and how to use it.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
