Port Hope council voted this week for a new noise bylaw for the first time since the previous one was written in 1996, though did have some amendments in 2002.
Municipal Law Enforcement Supervisor Dave Chatwell hoped to have this passed last month when he brought it to council’s October meeting, noting it became a priority when he joined the municipality a year ago and saw the noise bylaw was written almost 30 years ago.
Chatwell said staff studied noise bylaws in Cobourg, Peterborough, Stouffville, Aurora and more in the GTA as a comparison to Port Hope. Changes in the proposed update included exemptions for the municipality when conducting infrastructure work.
Chatwell also said a number of questions had been received including why noise decibel readings were not included in the bylaw.
The 11 p.m. curfew time had also been questioned and Chatwell said that’s standard time for noise bylaws. He also noted they receive more complaints for dogs barking than loud music.
Councillor Claire Holloway Wadhwani suggested deferring the decision to the November meeting, citing allowing more community feedback into the decision along with a larger council decision as Mayor Olena Hankivsky and Deputy Mayor Vicki Mink were both absent from last month’s meeting.
This week, Holloway Wadhwani told Chatwell she appreciated the extra time and residents were pleased to give feedback as well. She said most of the comments she has heard or seen are with respect to a particular “outlier” that staff are aware of, but did not name the business.
“We shouldn’t be designing our bylaws around one particular outlier challenge, but I think you’ve really done a good job of building in opportunities to address that case and other cases that will arise on a case-by-case basis with consideration for residents,” Holloway Wadhwani said. “For me, I’m comfortable moving forward based on all of the additional information you’ve been able to provide to those resident inquiries.”
Councillor Todd Attridge asked for a better understanding of what residents can expect from the new bylaw when there are bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues within a residential area disturbing residents.
Chatwell said education is the first approach.
“Generally most noise bylaws are 11:00 if you go across the province,” he said. “We can work with businesses in the hopes they’re going to mitigate the noise.”
Councillor Les Andrews also referenced the “outlier” and said it’s been an ongoing problem for many years, wondering if a meeting could take place with the owner.
“The point is to bring this bylaw forward, get it passed and then it allows me the powers to go in and have those discussions because right now I don’t really have anything to negotiate with under the current noise bylaw,” Chatwell said.
Mink agreed from earlier discussion that staff don’t have the capacity to police the bylaw all the time and ratepayers shouldn’t be paying for staff to control one or two outliers.
The deputy mayor said she thinks businesses should have site plans, sound containment strategies, decibel monitoring and security enforcement at their own cost “because that is the price of them doing business that causes noise pollution.”
Chatwell said an exemption still requires them to come with a plan.
“Under the current standard it is extremely difficult for us to put stipulations in there that we can’t abide by the enforcement,” he said. “Yes we could receive a letter from somebody, a sound engineer, that states this business is under the decibel levels, but then what if they’re not. Now we’ve got to check those decibel levels, so now we’ve got to buy the $800 certified unit, we have to pay for the training for the officer and the staffing. We have to prove that they’re above the decibel readings if we were to put a decibel reading in the bylaw and that is my concern.”
Mink asked why the business wouldn’t pay for that and do their own reports if there are complaints.
Chatwell suggested that would be hard to enforce and in his opinion would be difficult to have businesses recording noise levels at all times.
The vote carried 5-1 with only Mink opposed. Mayor Olena Hankivsky had recused herself from the discussion.
A report on the new bylaw states:
“The updated Noise By-law modernizes and simplifies the Municipality’s approach. The use of Quiet Zones and Residential Areas” has been eliminated, with restrictions now applying consistently across the entire Municipality. Exemptions for agricultural operations have been retained to respect the needs of Port Hope’s rural areas.
A clear exemption permit process has been established within the by-law. Authority for shorter-term exemptions has been delegated to Municipal Law Enforcement, while Council retains the authority to grant longer-term requests. Provisions have also been added to exempt municipal operations, including infrastructure maintenance and emergency repair activities.
To align with other permitting processes, a fee structure has been introduced for noise exemption permits. Staff recommend a fee of $75, consistent with comparable fees elsewhere in the Municipality.
This will offset the staff time and administrative resources required to process exemption applications.”
Previous story: https://todaysnorthumberland.ca/2025/10/23/update-to-port-hope-noise-bylaw-deferred-to-november-council-meeting/
Author: Pete Fisher
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