New Bylaw Enforcement System Saves Court Time and Money

Commencing May 6, 2014, Council will join with City of Nanaimo, City of Parksville and District of Tofino to move the process of resolving bylaw ticket disputes related to minor infractions out of the Provincial Court system and into an independent adjudication process.

The new system simplifies the local government process for resolving minor bylaw violation disputes by providing residents with flexible options to pay and a new process to dispute Bylaw Offence Notices. As a result, service delivery to residents will be enhanced and costs to municipalities will be minimized by enabling the parties involved to deal with these minor disputes at the local level. This will also free up available Provincial Court time for more serious or complex bylaw matters.

“The new system has many benefits for Duncan residents and will help reduce pressure on the courts,” said Mayor Phil Kent. Every local government currently faces delays in resolving legal disputes over tickets and it makes sense for us to work collaboratively to adopt this new streamlined process resulting in cost savings to our taxpayers.”

The simple process involves forwarding disputes to a screening officer, who will evaluate the tickets. Cases that are not resolved during the screening process will be referred to the provincially appointed adjudicator will hear all bylaw notice disputes either in‐person, by written submission or via telephone. The results have the same force as decisions of a provincial court and will be binding upon the parties.

This new bylaw adjudication process can reduce the dispute process resulting in cost savings to the municipality and more efficient use of bylaw officer time.

For further information contact:

Karen Robertson, Director of Corporate Services
Karen@duncan.ca
Phone: 250‐746‐6126