Brantford Councillors Endorse Call for Provincial Scrap Metal Legislation
Burtch was closed by the provincial government in 2001.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Councillors, at a Tuesday committee-of-the-whole meeting recommended for approval a resolution calling for provincial legislation to address the scourge. Their decision will come before city council for approval on Aug. 26.
Coun. Richard Carpenter said there has to be a penalty when people are caught committing these kinds of crimes.
Brantford introduced a bylaw just over a year ago to combat the increasing problem of thieves vandalizing businesses to steal copper wire and scrap metal.
The bylaw, among other things, prohibits cash transactions and make it mandatory for salvage yards to issue traceable transactions such as cheques or e-transfers for such items. It also restricts the kind of material or items that can be sold to a scrap metal dealer including wire from a utility, a street or traffic sign, manhole cover as well bronze or brass commercial valves or fittings among others.
But the bylaw, although well-intentioned, isn’t generating the results, councillors sought because it is only enforced in Brantford.
“It doesn’t make sense and it won’t work very well if only one municipality has a bylaw,” Coun. Richard Carpenter said. “This needs to be province-wide.
“Otherwise, they’ll just take their scrap metal somewhere else.”
Carpenter said many of the individuals who get arrested for committing these types of crime laugh it off because they know they’ll be back on the street within a couple of hours.
That’s because of the province’s catch and release policy, Carpenter said.
“I want the province to step up,” Carpenter said. “I want the province to hire more judges, start building more jails.
“This is affecting everyone in our community and nothing is happening because there aren’t enough judges and the province doesn’t want to pay for more jails.”
Coun. Linda Hunt said the city’s efforts should be seen as the start of a much-wider advocacy campaign to get effective provincial legislation in place.
Coun. Dan McCreary noted that Brantford, Brant South Six Nations MP Larry Brock is travelling the country to drum up support for bail reform.
The Ward 3 councillor urged people to support Brock’s campaign.
Coun. Greg Martin, a past member of the Brantford Police Services Board, said there are other forms of release from custody that don’t even require bail.
People charged with a crime can be released on a promise to appear in court at a future date.
“Unfortunately, not everyone bothers to show up for court and police have to start looking for them,” Martin said. “It’s not just bail reform, it’s all of the other forms of release that need to be addressed as well to keep repeat offenders in jail until their trial.”
Coun. Brian Van Tilborg said repeat offenders need to be taken out of the community and said that in the past, local criminals could be sent to the Burtch Correctional Centre, just south of Brantford.
Council has called for the province to invest in a two-years less a day facility. A correctional facility typically handles those convicted of lesser crimes.
“There is a direct correlation between the closing of Burtch and the increase in these petty crimes,” Van Tilborg, (Ward 5) said.
Burtch was closed by the provincial government in 2001.
Prior to the council discussion, councillors heard from John Oddi, president of the Chamber of Commerce Brantford Brant and Elizabeth Lorenzin, chair of the chamber’s advocacy committee.
The true cost of the crime to businesses is the cost to repair or replace damaged property, Lorenzin said.
“These costs are into the millions of dollars for the small business owners in our community,” Lorenzin said. “We’re talking about costs that are not in our budget, it’s not something that we know is coming until it’s actually right there in front of us.”
Lorenzin said small business owners simply can’t survive these incidents.
“We do not have the money to repair or replace,” she said.
Courtesy: www.brantfordexpositor.ca