Hamilton bylaw enforcement to refocus post-COVID

While municipal bylaw officers did issue 149 COVID-19 charges in 2022, all the charges occurred in the first three months of the year. Still, bylaw responded to a total of 43,441 complaints in 2022.

Yard maintenance had the most calls at 7,181, with property standards receiving 2,452 calls and zoning with 965 complaints. There were 5,821 calls about animal ownership, 2,454 calls about snow and ice, and 2,383 about licensing, particularly concerning cannabis. There were 1,335 calls about encampments and there were 2,022 complaints about noise.

Overall, bylaw officials issued 3,685 charges, resulting in $452,645 in fines for 2022. In 2021, the bylaw issued 5,638 charges, the highest between 2019 and 2022, while in 2019, the bylaw issued 3,414 charges.

Ward 13 had the highest number of charges issued at 607, followed by Ward 1 with 580 charges and Ward 3 with 566 charges. Ward 10 had the lowest number of charges at 76, followed by Ward 11 with 84 and Ward 14 with 95.

Bylaw officials say trends for 2023 include a higher number of complaints and investigations involving rental properties and property standards.

Since COVID-19 regulations were scrapped, municipal law enforcement’s priorities have evolved, focusing on property standards, site alteration or dumping, yard maintenance and zoning issues. During the summer, bylaw enforcement officers had some help from co-op students as they concentrated on graffiti enforcement, weeds, waterfalls and waterfront enforcement.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
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Council has also approved several consumer protection and nuisance control bylaws, including short-term rental licensing, which council approved in 2023, and the rental housing program approved in 2021. The rental licensing bylaw has a dedicated staff to enforce the program during the pilot, which is scheduled to end in December 2025.

Other new priority bylaws council has approved include encampment protocol, which was approved in August 2023, nuisance party and off-road vehicle rules, both approved in 2021, and site alteration and waterfalls enforcement, both approved in 2020 with dedicated enforcement staff.

City officials stated that site alteration, zoning, licensing, nuisance party and property standards bylaws are the top five priority areas that staff will concentrate on. Other areas will include animal ownership, snow and ice, noise, street signs and the vacant building registry. The encampment, rental housing and waterfalls all have dedicated bylaw enforcement staff that council approved.

Even with the new officers, Monica Ciriello, director of licensing, said Hamilton still ranks behind several municipalities in the number of enforcement staff.

“We are significantly lower (than other comparative municipalities),” said Ciriello. “We are certainly seeing an increase in complaints. It is very time-consuming for our staff to investigate.”

Adding to the workload, Ciriello said the city’s “partnership” with the Hamilton Police Service has ended with regard to noise complaints. The agreement allowed the city’s bylaw officers to work later on enforcing noise bylaws, particularly on weekends. They can’t work beyond 1 a.m.

Ciriello, though, emphasized the city continues to address noise complaints during the week from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., as well as on weekends up to 1 a.m.

Kim Coombs, director of municipal law enforcement, said besides the dedicated bylaw officers for particular programs, the city has 12 officers “reacting for the entire city.”

Coun. John Paul Danko, who is also chair of the committee, suggested council could increase the fines on several bylaw programs to help pay for the officers who investigate them. He suggested boosting the fines for violators of special enforcement zones in and around waterfalls and schools.

“If the public is asking for more enforcement, (this) is something we could look at.”