Council rejects new begging and loitering bylaw, but balks at repealing old ones

At their meeting on Tuesday evening, Tantramar council voted down a newly proposed bylaw on loitering and begging, and then opted to keep two existing and similar bylaws on the books in Sackville and Dorchester.

The proposed bylaw is part of the review and consolidation of bylaws for the new municipality of Tantramar being carried out by the municipal clerk.

The Tantramar-wide bylaw would have made “asking for money, food, or help as charity” illegal, and also banned loitering, defined as “remaining in an area with no obvious purpose.” The new bylaw also included a ban on soliciting door-to-door, unless what’s being sold is a book that’s been previously approved by council. (That provision appears to be a call back to the former Municipalities Act, which set up exemptions to solicitation laws for publishers of encyclopedias, educational texts, and Bibles. While Tantramar council has no list of exempted books, the province did keep a list of specific books that were allowed to be sold door-to-door in the province.)

Councillor Josh Goguen was the first to speak on the proposed Tantramar-wide bylaw, and referenced issues that the city of Halifax has had with police street checks. In 2017, Halifax police street check data showed that Black people in the city were three times more likely than white people to be stopped by police.

“We’re basically saying to somebody that, you’re sitting down, and the bylaw officer can come up to you and say, What are you doing? Who are you? Why are you sitting around?,” said Goguen. “It just gives them almost too much power.”

Goguen also expressed concern over the ban on begging. “We’re not seeing it as much here, but in bigger municipalities, you see it,” said Goguen. “I think before we tell them that they’re not allowed or start ticketing them… As long as they’re not being aggressive, then it’s okay.” Goguen said the municipality needs solutions for housing and shelter to alleviate the need for people to ask for money.

“I think that we need to re-look at some of the wording in the bylaw,” said Goguen, suggesting approval be delayed.

After a very short discussion, council proceeded to a vote on the first reading of the bylaw, with Mayor Andrew Black and councillors Josh Goguen, Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney and Debbie Wiggins-Colwell all voting against. Four councillors voted in favour: Matt Estabrooks, Barry Hicks, Greg Martin and Michael Tower.

After the vote rejecting reading of the bylaw, clerk Donna Beal pointed out that bylaws banning begging and loitering were still on the books in both Sackville and Dorchester. Sackville’s current bylaw was adopted in 2007, and refers directly to the now defunct Municipalities Act, which gave local councils the option to adopt its specific ban on loitering and begging. The current Local Government Act doesn’t specifically mention begging or loitering at all.

CHMA has requested a copy of the former village of Dorchester’s bylaw, which is not available on the former village website.

Council ‘nervous’ about repealing existing bylaws

Donna Beal told council that if their intention was to not have a bylaw banning loitering and begging, then they would need to repeal the two existing bylaws.

Goguen cautiously agreed to make the motion to repeal on the spot, which was seconded by Bruce Phinney. However by the end of the ensuing discussion, all councillors voted against the motion to repeal.

Councillor Matt Estabrooks said he hesitated to “move on the fly” with an immediate repeal. “Is that impacting what [bylaw officers] can do for us? Or do we lose all our power with bylaw and loitering?” he asked. When Black answered yes, Estabrooks said, “that’s not something I can stand behind.”

Tantramar treasurer Michael Beal is currently in charge of bylaw enforcement until the town’s new director of protective services gets hired. He told councillors that the authority granted by the loitering provision of the bylaw has been used by Tantramar bylaw enforcement within the last year and a half.

“Since we’ve been the municipality of Tantramar, bylaw has had to [use the bylaw] when there have been situations where people felt unsafe in a certain situation in a park, and the individual was approached and asked to move within a specified period of time,” said Beal. The incident in question was prompted by a complaint from a local resident, he said, and there were no tickets issued as a result.

Mayor Andrew Black asked about the authority of the RCMP in such cases. While Michael Beal said he believed the RCMP only had authority when it came to matters of a criminal nature, Councillor Bruce Phinney was prompted to recount a story where he himself was approached by police in Amherst, after a complaint from a local parent who was concerned about his interest in the town’s new splash pad. “I wanted to see what kind of problems they were having with it,” said Phinney about his presence at the splash park, but then the Amherst town police showed up. “They had four of them around me,” recounted Phinney. “Must have thought I was some sicko or something. But anyway, it got straightened out.”

Phinney said he had been impressed by the response of the Amherst police and believes that when it comes to the Sackville RCMP, “if there are complaints, and if anybody calls them, they’ll be there just like that.”

Despite the promise of local RCMP response, councillors continued to express concern over the repeal of the loitering bylaw.

“We could create a major problem if we do not have any power at all over the bylaw,” said Councillor Barry Hicks. Councillor Greg Martin said the thought of not having a bylaw made him “a bit nervous” and Councillor Michael Tower said he hoped to see a revised bylaw, because he believed the RCMP would not have the authority to remove someone from a public place.

In the end, all councillors voted against the repeal, which means that the existing rules banning loitering, begging and soliciting will remain in place for the time being in the former town of Sackville and village of Dorchester.