City Council passed a report containing new recommended rules for the open air burning bylaw on Monday, giving way to Fire Chief Grant Love and his team to draft a new version of the document. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
City Council approved a set of recommendations for a revised open air burning bylaw on Monday night, moving the city one step closer to lifting the current backyard burning restrictions.
Council’s vote now gives way to Fire Chief Grant Love and his team to revisit the report and draft the new bylaw, the next step in seeing it come to fruition.
The fire chief made a presentation to council during committee discussions on Dec. 15, during which he delivered a list of recommendations from the fire department’s study.
Put simply, the new bylaw would reflect two zones within the city: an un-restricted burning area and a recreational burning area. However, recreational burning would be opened up to all areas of the city, so long as the basic requirements are met.
Most notably, the fire would have to be set in a safe location five-metres from any structure and property lines, and must be burned in a manufactured burning appliance. The fire must also be fueled by non-combustible materials no greater than 45-by-45 centimetres.
Everyone who wants to enjoy a fire would also have to obtain a permit, something that Love said is imperative. The fire chief also said the permit-application process would be made as easy and accessible as possible, with hopes of eventually moving to an online system.
As it currently stands, urban areas are prohibited from recreational or open-air burning, nor can someone within that area even obtain a permit for one; only residents in rural areas are permitted.
With many other restrictions to supplement those basic ones, Love outlined the need for an extensive public education program so that the rules are clearly stated. With that campaign in place, Love said there would be no excuse for violating the rules and that a zero-tolerance rule that would be in effect immediately after the new bylaw is implemented.
When asked about his personal stance towards lifting the burning bylaw restrictions after his initial presentation, Chief Love said his underlying responsibilities go against the new recommendations.
“As the Fire Chief, no I would not [support the recommendations],” Love said at the time. “To me, the fair thing to say is no, I don’t support it. But I think what we have to do is take what the community and the City of North Bay would like to have into consideration.”
However, despite his personal concerns, he said that the primary purpose of undertaking the initial report was to obtain feedback from North Bay residents and what they would like to see put in place.
Coun. Mike Anthony, vice-chair of the Community Services Committee, expressed his concern for the recommendations on Monday night and ultimately did not support the report being passed.
Although supportive of the suggestions initially, he said that he had a change of heart after hearing that Love, himself, was not supportive of the recommendations put forward.
“A lot of folks are anxious of moving this forward…but in the end it came down to the answer that Chief Love gave me when I asked him, as the chief and a member of the fire department, if he supported this and his answer was no,” Anthony explained during Monday’s meeting.
“However, as we know, the Chief was tasked with trying to find compromise and they did that in this report,” he concluded.
The report itself states that restrictions should be tailored to the city’s particular needs and, when taking population density, burn frequency and potential adverse effects into consideration, they felt North Bay fit the bill for widespread recreational burning.
