Newmarket council wants to crack down on businesses it says are being disruptive with noise and shrugging off existing fines.
Mayor John Taylor put forward a resolution to increase fines relating to noise and operating without a business licence. Council backed the move at the Dec. 5 committee of the whole meeting.
The move comes with the town also planning to increase fines for repeat offenders. Taylor said fine increases serve to address businesses that are the most disruptive.
“These are some areas that are most likely to impact people who are really impacting the community or disregarding the rules,” Taylor said. “If the penalties aren’t significant enough, they treat it as a business cost. Hopefully, this will change that.”
The fine increases include operating without a business and failing to comply with legislation going from $600 and $300, respectively, to $1,000 on a first offence, rising to $2,000 on a second and $3,000 on a third offence. These are some of the highest fines in the town’s bylaws.
Other fees going up include permitting noise during a prohibited time and emitting noise likely to disturb, each going from $200 to $600 on a first offence.
Ward 3 Councillor Jane Twinney and Ward 5 Councillor Bob Kwapis raised the subject of noisy businesses as an issue.
“I do need this expedited as fast as possible,” Kwapis said. “There’s business noise, significant, after-hours currently. One of these establishments is causing issues and has been causing issues for months that I’m dealing with, they’ve already been having multiple fines.”
Town staff discussed addressing this through licensing changes, but indicated a deeper look at that could not happen until the end of January. Town council sought a quicker solution and approved proceeding with upped fines.
The town is also making it so its Administrative Monetary Penalties System (AMPS) can have increased fines for repeat offenders. The system allows the town to avoid a provincial court process for fines but previously, any fines beyond the base amount would require a court process. Now, the town is putting all fine increases into the easier-to-use AMPS system, with most fines increasing by 50 per cent on a second offence and 225 per cent on a third offence.
The changes will still need to be finalized at a council meeting later this month.
“We’re having challenges with some business operators who are willing to just pay fines and continue to disturb the community,” Taylor said. “This is an opportunity to address that.”
