I feel compelled to write to a newspaper for the first time in my life. A publisher’s idea that citizens/taxpayers should document infractions seen in the community to assist our municipal government and their staff, has brought me to this point. According to the recent ‘Publisher’s Column’, you have suggested that residents of the town and municipality should document and possibly photograph any witnessed violations with a time and date stamp and give the ‘data’ to council and staff. This would be in lieu of complaints because council and staff are too busy to “be everywhere all the time, to see what’s going on.”
Mr. Publisher, there are bylaw enforcement officers to do just that and this summer, some of them have the appearance of swat team members.
I really don’t believe you want the citizens of Tobermory and the Municipality to engage in resident-tourist espionage but your recent column has made me think this. Your continued defence of what you refer to as an overworked and overburdened council and staff is ignoring the real issue. The area has become an Ontario tourist hotspot and the people you are defending live here, have businesses here and are not keeping pace with the issues they can see for themselves. Instead, they were laser focused on STA bylaws and regulations which has kept them “way too busy” for two years. Now that that’s out of the way, maybe they’ll hire a consultant to advise on the fireworks, noise, parking and tourists-enjoying-Bruce Peninsula infractions, instead of using that money wisely to hire additional bylaw enforcement officers.
I’m sure you don’t want any citizens who are not trained in enforcement techniques put in harm’s way by documenting perceived violations, but with your media reach via this column, you could be doing just that.
Stop defending council and staff and report “just the facts, ma’am.”
Jim Stewart
Tobermory
