There won't be fines for businesses or residents within the MD of Bonnyville that have chronic false alarms, at least none that are enforced by the municipality.
The MD of Bonnyville council determined at their last meeting, on Wednesday, Oct. 16, they won't be implementing a false alarm bylaw anytime soon.
After instructing their public safety department to investigate the number of false alarm reports within their municipality, the MD saw little value in creating a bylaw that would fine home and business owners for repeat offences.
According to Matt Janz, general manager of environmental and protective services, the MD started to look into the issue after local RCMP brought the concern to their attention.
“In April, the RCMP came and did a presentation on all of the workload they’ve been doing, and what they did mention was that false alarms were a big problem in the MD of Bonnyville and how they’ve been called out quite a bit."
He added, “During that review process over the summer months, it came back that a lot of the issue wasn’t coming from the MD of Bonnyville."
In 2018, there were a total of 213 false alarms from within the City of Cold Lake and the surrounding rural area. In that same year, the town and rural area of Bonnyville had 450. Those numbers dropped in 2019, with the Cold Lake region having less than 50 and only 60 reports of false alarms in the Bonnyville area that year.
Between Jan. 1, 2018 and July 5, 2019, three locations within the MD made the list of top nine places for false alarms within the Cold Lake area. There were five reports from one site, 13 from another, and a third property in the municipality had the highest false alarms in that region at 19.
“That’s quite a lot of false alarms,” stated Chris Garner, director of public safety for the MD.
During that same timeframe, areas within the MD closer to the Town of Bonnyville had two spots make the list. One location had seven false alarm reports while another had 20.
In both communities, the most common reasons for these types of reports were motion detectors or false alarms. Issues with the alarm code was the third conclusion, and tampering with the system was the least prevalent cause.
Janz expressed even when a triggered alarm is reported, police don't always rush to the call.
“The (reports) that were coming from the MD, most of them weren’t responded to. When (RCMP) were called out, they weren’t actually coming on scene," Janz noted.
Reeve Greg Sawchuk explained that the current RCMP policy requires at least two sensor triggers in order for officers to respond.
For example, RCMP are informed if one sensor or more has been triggered. If someone were moving through a building they would trigger multiple sensors, requiring a police presence.
A high turnover of staff, aging alarm systems, and the wear and tear of keypads were among the reasons why false alarms are more common at certain locations.
In the end, Janz said, what the municipality determined was there wasn't really a problem that warranted a bylaw.
Garner noted communities that do have one in place rarely enforce it.
“In all cases, the bylaws were sitting there collecting dust,” he stated.
Coun. Dana Swigart instructed administration to look into the number of false alarm reports local fire departments are suiting up for, and whether or not that's an issue.
Staff will bring those numbers back to council at a future meeting.
