As temperatures continue drop into the dead of winter, St. Albert residents should be aware of the city’s idling bylaw, which is in its second year after city council updated it last year.
Motorists are not allowed to idle for longer than three minutes when temperatures are between -20 C and 30 C. The time limit is extended to 10 minutes for mass transportation vehicles, including school buses.
City council approved the changes in October 2018 as part of updates to its idling bylaw.
As with other types of municipal enforcement, the bylaw is enforced on a complaint basis.
Complaints of idling vehicles have nearly quadrupled in 2019 already compared to 2018, according to St. Albert communications staff. In 2017 and 2018, no tickets were issued, although 12 complaints were made last year. After the updated bylaw passed, three tickets were issued this year and 44 complaints were made.
Coun. Natalie Joly said she has not heard any comments from residents on the updated bylaw.
“The way we do municipal enforcement is on a complaints basis,” she said. “So, unless your neighbor is running their diesel truck for an hour, I don't know how often we're having to go out in and deal with those complaints.”
In many ways, the idling bylaw is more of an ideological bylaw than a functional bylaw, said Coun. Sheena Hughes.
“I mean, there's cars everywhere and there's only a few municipal enforcement officers, right, and then it's a matter of do we want it done or not,” she said.
Updates to the idling bylaw played a part in St. Albert achieving a milestone in a climate protection program.
A Dec. 13 media release from the city said St. Albert has been recognized for achieving the fifth and final milestone in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program.
“St. Albert is part of a special group of municipalities in Canada that have achieved the fifth milestone in the PCP framework, which demonstrates clear leadership on energy and GHG emissions management,” the release said.
As part of the work to reduce greenhouse gases, St. Albert has conducted audits at 11 city facilities, created a home energy assessment toolkit and updated its idling bylaw.
An interview request for this story was not granted by the City of St. Albert.
