Why is Saanich contemplating the expenditure of some $5-$7 million over the next five years and an additional $800,000 for the foreseeable future to amend the current dog leash bylaw?
Why is Saanich not putting the same effort and resources into the much more urgent health and safety issues on which virtually all council members campaigned?
Overgrown sidewalks and boulevards litter our municipality and next to nothing is done to correct the problem. Virtually every road I walk, cycle or drive has multiple bylaw violations. Every day our children and hundreds of others are forced to walk on local roads due to encroachments and obstructions on municipal boulevards. Regularly pedestrians are forced to walk in the middle of the road when vehicles are parked adjacent to these obstacles, yet, when we file complaints with bylaw enforcement, little if anything gets resolved. Why is there no proactive enforcement of these bylaws? Why does this council not move to amend the current bylaw enforcement policy to require officers to enforce bylaws as written, consistently, fairly and equally? What is the municipality’s “burden of liability” should persons be injured or killed due to this willful negligence?
This dogs-on-leash issue doesn’t just affect dog owners. The proposed spending of untold millions of our tax dollars on a relatively minor issue has riled many of us every bit as much as it has the dog owners. Public safety should be of paramount importance and resources must be focused on it.
The notion that the majority of people are going to obey these proposed amendments is both naive and laughable. Over the past several days I have heard people speak of avoiding enforcement by walking “off trail “ at Pkols, which will, of course, destroy vegetation and disturb the very ecosystem we all want to protect.
Never have I heard such anger and animosity within my social circles as in the past week. Because of this single divisive issue, I have been approached by strangers telling me I must sign the petition currently circulating (which I have), people talking of class-action lawsuits against the municipality, talk of getting dog licences from a neighbouring municipality, refusing to pick up after their dogs. People are angry, as am I.
Yes, some dogs do run out of control and their owners must be held to account. Surely a better thought-out, more cost-effective and balanced solution can be found.
David Kerr
Saanich
