Before the COVID-19 pandemic, being a bylaw officer in Newmarket was a straightforward job.
But for much of the past year, officers have set aside tasks such as writing parking tickets and taken on the critical work of ensuring that people and businesses are following the list of public health restrictions that kept changing as the pandemic wore on.
Town of Newmarket bylaw enforcement officer B. Rice said it was a big adjustment.
"Obviously, it's been an unprecedented time. No one thinks when you sign up for a job that all of a sudden we would be dealing with a pandemic. Our job has definitely changed," said Rice.
"For me, personally, I was a parking officer before COVID-19 became what it was. So I would be in a car all by myself all day, looking into parking complaints or on patrol. Now I don't even do parking. I am strictly COVID-19, so I'm inspecting businesses, going to complaints, answering questions from residents or businesses. It takes up my whole day.
"We officers are also working a lot more than we were before, but we are doing our best to make sure Newmarket stays as healthy as possible."
Town of Newmarket manager of regulatory services Flynn Scott said that he and his team of eight full-time bylaw officers were told about their new roles at a meeting in the early days of the pandemic.
"We had to learn to fly pretty quickly," said Flynn.
Rice said she and her coworkers were ready to make the pivot and kept up a positive attitude while the training began for their new role, and the pace hasn't slowed since then.
"We had a big meeting when we were briefed on what the regulations were, which have been ever-changing. We had training on how to use our PPE, how to keep our vehicles sanitized, that sort of stuff. There was lots of reading and meetings to make sure we were up-to-date with all that before we go out and educate the public," said Rice. "That training has been ongoing."
Rice said she is not frustrated by how they were asked by public health officials to enforce a changing list of rules over the past year.
"This virus has been unpredictable, so we have to do our best to be in line with what public health and the province require to keep people safe," she said.
"It's been a year of this now, so we are used to it. We are on the right path to be, hopefully, rid of COVID-19."
It became clear fairly quickly that things could not be business-as-usual at the bylaw enforcement departments. Tactics has to be adjusted, and some of the department's other duties had to be put on hold. For instance, most forms of parking enforcement had to be suspended.
One thing that was decided about the approach that Newmarket bylaw officers would take was that they would hold off on issuing fines as much as possible.
"We needed to try not to be too heavy-handed," said Flynn.
As a result, Newmarket has taken the approach of handing out education notices in most cases, only resorting to fines in the case of repeat offenders or people who are consciously choosing not to follow the rules.
This approach is reflected in the weekly enforcement statistics released by York Region, which indicate Newmarket often does hundreds of inspections and hands out an equal amount of education notices, and just one or two fines, if any at all.
In contrast, some municipalities' bylaw offices are much more aggressive, such as those in Vaughan and Markham, which appear to target specific kinds of violations one week and hand out multiple fines to businesses.
The bylaw officers from all nine municipalities in York Region, York Region Public Health inspectors, York Regional Police, Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) and Provincial Offence Act court prosecutions comprise the regional enforcement task force.
In the last year, more than have 49,000 inspections have occurred across the region, resulting in 1,084 charges and 24,813 compliance education activities.
Most people want to follow the rules, said Flynn, and this approach has worked out well in Newmarket. But there are times when educating people has its limits, and the frustration officers have encountered only grew as the pandemic wore on.
"We will educate people until we are blue in the face, but we will issue fines when we have to," he said.
"People getting upset is a regular occurrence, and the longer the restrictions were in place, the angrier people get. But we respect the fact that people are tired. It's important to have sympathy for our residents.
Rice agreed that the risk of people becoming angry is a real risk, and that "COVID fatigue" plays a role in that. But noted that most businesses are supportive and even happy to see them.
"We know people are struggling both personally and financially, so we always go in with our best foot forward and let them know it's not personal," said Rice.
"When we get pushback, we try our best to explain why we are there, why we are enforcing the rules, and that we are not arbitrary, we are just trying to ensure people's safety."
If that doesn't work and passions boil over, bylaw officers disengage and call the police. But Scott notes that it still has a big impact on officers and their morale.
Bylaw enforcement was a stressful job, to begin with, but the stresses of dealing with an anxious public, risking infection, and trying to keep up with an ever-changing list of restrictions and rules for the past year can lead people to take their stresses home with them.
"Some days are harder than others," said Rice
"There is a lot of stress, obviously, and there is a lot of pressure on us. So I would be lying if I said we were all having a great time and it was all sunshine and rainbows, but we are managing the stress. It's also gratifying to know we are doing what we can to keep people safe ... We also have really great support from our managers. "
So what happens when bylaw officers go into a business on inspection?
According to Scott, officers will arrive at a building always wearing identifiable uniforms announcing them as bylaw enforcement; there are no plainclothes visits whatsoever.
If the business is a grocery store, they try to be strategic in their approach. They start by walking in and observing what is going on in the store, looking for things like whether employees are counting people coming in the door, everyone is keeping their distance as much as possible, people are wearing masks and so on.
Once the officers are finished their observations, they will find a manager and begin looking at some of the higher-level items on their checklist. They start by asking to see the store's safety plan and then ask to be taken to the back area of the store.
Once they are done with the inspection, they inform the manager of their findings. If a violation is found, they will either educate the manager on how to fix the problem or will issue a fine under the provincial reopening act, which totals $880, if necessary.
Bylaw officers are also called to respond to complaints about private residences, although Scott noted that these calls have been very rare, and most of them have been unfounded. Their ability to respond to these calls is also resource dependent.
When they do go, however, they usually ask York Regional Police to come along for safety reasons. They knock on the door and talk to the resident, and also look around the outside for indications that someone may be breaking restrictions, such as lots of cars parked outside for a house party.
Rice said she is looking forward to the prospect of going back to parking enforcement, just like most people are excited to getting back to their regular lives and jobs whenever the pandemic is over. But she will miss the interaction with the public.
"It's been nice talking with people face-to-face and building that trust and friendship with businesses and residents. But I do look forward to having a job where the bylaws don't change every week."
