More city bylaw offences, higher ticket fines proposed to clean up unsafe, unsightly properties

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This article was published 10/04/2025 (195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The city could soon issue tickets of up to $1,000 for 37 more bylaw offences, which a councillor expects would help address public complaints and prepare for a surge in home construction.

A new proposal seeks to expand offences that are eligible for penalties through the Municipal By-law Enforcement Act, through which the city issues tickets for a variety of parking, livability and building bylaw offences.

Coun. Janice Lukes supports the expansion, predicting it will help prevent properties from becoming unsafe or unsightly.

“I think it’s great, because as our city is growing in population, as we’re densifying (we need to) respond to what we’re hearing from residents,” said Lukes (Waverley West).

“We’ve got a lot of construction going on in this city. It’s about safety but it’s also about neighbourhood livability. We don’t want junk, we don’t want unsafe sites.”

The latest round of tickets would largely affect property owners and the construction industry, pending city council approval.

Lukes said two of the offences proposed for ticketing enforcement would help the city tackle vacant buildings and rubble-filled lots that plague some neighbourhoods. If approved, either failing to start or completing a demolition within a required time frame could result in a fine of up to $1,000, or $500 if paid early.

“We’ve had a lot of fires. We’ve had a lot of public awareness and concern about the fires, so we’re responding,” said Lukes.

The city would also add $1,000 fines for: failing to ensure immediate compliance when a stop-work order has been issued; failing to leave a site in a safe manner or maintain it in a safe condition when work is suspended or terminated; and failing to ensure construction work meets code, bylaw and permit requirements, among other infractions.

Additional fines can be added every 24 hours after a ticket has been issued.

Lukes said poor site standards for some infill construction projects may also be addressed by the new penalties.

“Complaints do come in when there’s more construction… (and) we’re really wanting to do a lot of housing development. So, we just want to make sure everything, as much as we can, is in order,” she said.

Darrell Warren, president of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association, said he believes the demolition fines are a good step to trigger action on problem properties.

Warren said his association counted 120 such properties in the area last year, including vacant and derelict properties, as well as piles of rubble left behind by fires.

“It would be a good thing if there were fines attached to that because, hopefully, we can get properties cleaned up a lot faster,” he said.

He also welcomed the fact followup fines are possible to further remind property owners to address a problem.

While it is possible to issue new fines every 24 hours, that step would likely be considered only in cases of imminent danger, and that option hasn’t been used yet, said Kelly Happychuk, chief of enforcement for the city’s planning, property and development department.

“It’s extremely rare that we would ever go to that step. We normally might (issue) two or three more (tickets),” said Happychuk.

”Some people call it a cost of business and will pay those fines instead of fixing the problem… so we have to raise our game a bit.”

Enforcement changes could help tackle concerns about rubble-filled lots, he said.

“Our goal here is to have the city cleaned up quicker, better,” he said, adding that ticketing tends to be a more efficient way to trigger compliance, because going the court route could stretch over months.

The city has collected $915,900 through penalties ticketed under the act since 2019, with annual revenue ranging from $40,900 to $317,675, though the fines are designed primarily to trigger compliance with city rules, not raise revenue, a city report notes.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), chairman of the property and development committee, was not available for comment Thursday.

The property and development committee will debate the changes Wednesday.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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