Despite what appears be only one municipal by-law officer working on weekends throughout the summer, the truth is – citizens will never know.
Today’s Northumberland only saw one officer on both weekends along the Cobourg waterfront during the past two weekends.
With thousands of people enjoying Victoria Beach, Victoria Park along with trying to enforce parking bylaws, downtown and other areas of Cobourg, it appears there is only one officer that worked the weekend.
Manager of Communications with the Town of Cobourg, Kara Euale stated that by-law has coverage 24/7 days, afternoons and overnight and is “supported by the Town’s 24/hour Telephone Answering Service.”
Outside of regular business hours (08:30 – 4:30 Monday – Friday) during the evenings and on weekends, Officers on shift/on call are contacted by telephone and receive an e-mail with full details of the call. General non-emergent calls after hours are received by the answering service, documented and dispatched via e-mail to the officer working on shift for prompt response or if there is no officer working that shift, they are responded to the following day (unless an emergency).
Euale stated that there are additional on-call staff that can be called in as required, but wouldn’t give any numbers of bylaw officers patrolling the town over the weekends during the summer.
“I am unable to provide you with that information. Section 52 (3) 3, of MFIPPA outlines that communications about labour relations which the Town has an interest, will not be provided to the public.”
“Shift schedules and staffing compliment for each shift is based on operational/seasonal demands.”
If an Officer is absent/unable to fulfill their shift, backfill relief may be arranged, or the department would be supported by our on-call system.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
