Archive for the 'council' Category

Bear and Garbage Fines in Coquitlam

Published on July 17, 2010 in coquitlam and council.

Do you live in Coquit­lam? If so, you may face an increase in fines if you are irre­spon­si­ble with how you dis­pose of your garbage!

Con­tinue read­ing ‘Bear and Garbage Fines in Coquitlam’

Rabbit Sales in Coquitlam

Published on June 4, 2010 in coquitlam and council.

On May 17, 2010, Coun­cil­lor Reid and Coun­cil­lor Robin­son (Sec­on­der) pre­sented a motion “that staff be directed to draft an amend­ment to the City’s Busi­ness Licens­ing Bylaw to pro­hibit the sale of rab­bits in Coquitlam.”

“We’ve got them every­where,” Reid told The Tri-City News. “Peo­ple buy the bun­nies and when they don’t want them any­more, they take them and let them go at the park. Loads of peo­ple are drop­ping them off at Mundy Park.”

Reid ref­er­ences to the Uni­ver­sity of Vic­to­ria where there is an explo­sion in the rab­bit population. “Right now, UVic is basi­cally hav­ing to kill hun­dreds and hun­dreds of rab­bits,” she said. “There is no need for this.”

What do you think of this motion in the City of Coquitam? How do you think coun­cil­lors should vote on this motion? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!

Smoking By-Law

Published on February 1, 2010 in coquitlam, council and politics.

At the last Coquit­lam coun­cil meet­ing, Coun­cil­lor Robin­son motioned to con­sider a smok­ing by-law for the City of Coquit­lam.  Here is the full text of the motion from Jan­u­ary 18, 2010:

Whereas 82% of Cana­di­ans do not smoke;

And whereas it has long been rec­og­nized that sec­ond hand smoke con­tains over 4000 chem­i­cals includ­ing 50 known chem­i­cals to cause cancer;

And whereas senior lev­els of gov­ern­ment have taken actions under their respec­tive juris­dic­tions to pro­tect cit­i­zens from sec­ond hand smoke such as the Fed­eral gov­ern­ments Non-Smokers Health Act passed in 1988 and recently strength­ened in 2007 ban­ning smok­ing and more recently smok­ing rooms from their work­places and the Provin­cial gov­ern­ment recently amended the Motor Vehi­cle Act to ban smok­ing in vehi­cles where a minor (under 16 years of age) is present;

And whereas the Fraser Health Author­ity sup­ports lim­it­ing expo­sure to sec­ond hand smoke;

And whereas smok­ing restric­tions increase the moti­va­tion for smok­ers to quit or cut­back, decreases neg­a­tive role mod­el­ing for chil­dren, pro­tects the envi­ron­ment and reduces litter;

And whereas direct enforce­ment from the munic­i­pal­ity may not be nec­es­sary as expe­ri­ence with out­door and indoor smoke-free laws has shown that the by-law itself is enough to deter most peo­ple from smok­ing. In addi­tion, peer pres­sure aris­ing from the com­mon under­stand­ing that the space is smoke-free also deters peo­ple from smoking:

There­fore be it resolved that the City of Coquit­lam develop a ban on smok­ing on pub­lic patios and spaces where minors (under 16 years of age) might be present;

And that the City of Coquit­lam invite munic­i­pal­i­ties in Metro Van­cou­ver that have yet to develop smok­ing bans to con­sider such a ban;

And that the City of Coquit­lam ask the Province to con­sider a ban on smok­ing in all pub­lic spaces.

As much as I do not like peo­ple who smoke in pub­lic places, I believe that this by-law will (a) drive con­sumers away; and (b) limit the rights and free­doms that are guar­an­teed under the con­sti­tu­tion.  I believe that instead of ban­ning smok­ing from our city, our city coun­cil should get the pub­lic aware that smok­ing is bad and try to dis­cour­age it.

Although it is going to be dis­cussed today at the Coquit­lam Coun­cil meet­ing, please com­ment what you think about this by-law.