Scott Radley: Hamilton has laws against tipping grave diggers, owning anteaters and dirty garbage pails. What is the point?

Did you know that in Hamilton you're required to rinse out your garbage pails when they're not being used to prevent bad odours? Or that technically you have to clean your lawn of dog poop, even if it's your own dog's droppings in your own backyard?

Did anyone alert you to the fact that you can't have a pet kangaroo or anteater but you can have a pet sugar glider? Or that you can't allow your car to idle for three minutes unless you qualify for one of 14 exemptions?

Or even that you can't tip a grave digger at a city cemetery for his or her work?

I didn't know that one," says Monica Ciriello.

She's the city's director of licensing and bylaw services. She doesn't make the bylaws. Council does that. But she's in charge of enforcing them.

The fact that she didn't know about that one - not that rule specifically, but that idea that there are some rather obscure edicts on the books - helps explain why Coun. John-Paul Danko wonders if it's time to start pruning bylaws that haven't been used in ages.

If there's a bylaw on the books that hasn't been enforced in, you know, 10 years or something like that, it's just sitting there, then is it really necessary to have that as a bylaw?" he asks.

Good question.

It's worth noting that this city has so many bylaws it would be impossible to keep track of them all. There are thousands. According to the city website, more than 5,800 new ones, amendments or alterations have been added since 2004 alone, which is the earliest you can find them online.

How many existed before then? Great question.

Of course, there are bylaws and there are bylaws.

Some are things like confirming the proceedings of council. Many are specific zoning rules. Administrative paperwork, in other words. These aren't things that broadly affect the public.

There are, however, plenty of others dealing with things like traffic rules, smoking in public, snow clearing and more. Ciriello's department looks after 50. Each of those might have 30 subsections. Each of those subsections might have numerous sub-subsections. Other departments have their own batch to handle.

Question is, are there too many?

If you have a bylaw on the book, you should be enforcing it," Danko says. If we're not enforcing those bylaws that are already there, then why do we have the bylaw in the first place?"

Valid question. On the other hand, why bother getting rid of it, some might ask. It's not doing any harm just lying there fallow.

Two reasons.

The first is, some folks have the good fortune of enjoying great neighbours. Others have the misfortune of living next to busybodies. More rules mean more opportunities for silly complaints.

We saw it during COVID," Ciriello says. If you look at the amount of complaints that came in over the last two years, yeah, people are complaining.

A story in The Spectator a few weeks ago pointed out that yard-related bylaw charges are up 700 per cent in the past three years.

Ciriello says staff has a system to deal with the perennial complainers. Still, if they don't enforce every bylaw equally, the city runs the risk of being accused of playing favourites when it does crack down on someone.

An example? Danko says there's a bylaw on the books that says you can't use more than 50 per cent of the width of your front yard for a driveway. There are exceptions and circumstances and varying scenarios, mind you. Either way ...

Every once in a while you get somebody that gets turned down for an application and they're like, Well my entire street has what I'm applying for,'" he says. Then they complain and then bylaw has to enforce the entire street. There's tons of examples like that."

It does seem unfair that two people do the same thing but one gets nailed for a violation simply because he or she has the misfortune of having a grumpy neighbour.

Which brings us to the second issue.

A completely fair system would identify things that are really important and proactively enforce them. Except utopia isn't possible. Danko says while enforcement staff does a good job, they're already stretched thin and there aren't enough of them to cover every bylaw.

So what to do? Maybe fewer rules would make it easier.

Ciriello says staff do weed out outdated bylaws. That said, they have to remember they were created for a reason at some point. Something inspired them. Someone thought they solved a problem.

When the new council is sworn in later this year, she'll be writing a report on what she sees as priorities. That should give some direction and help with some whittling.

Danko would seem to be interested in a little more of that. Simplify the books, lighten the load on enforcement and really pay attention to the things that matter most.

How far should that go?

I think it's a really interesting and valid question."

Scott Radley is a Hamilton-based columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sradley@thespec.com