City targets panhandlers
Aggressively begging for cash is now an offense in Enderby.
Council amended the good neighbour and municipal ticketing bylaws Monday to include panhandling.
“The police can now take action if they need to,” said Coun. Greg McCune.
“We need to make sure our residents are not being pestered.”
The penalty will range from $100 to $1,000 and possibly a jail term of not more than six months.
The issue arose because of one individual in the downtown core.
“According to reports, he’s approaching people for money. It can be an intimidating situation,” said Mayor Howie Cyr.
“Businesses say people have refrained from coming into shops because he is hanging around.”
McCune believes council was left with no choice but to proceed with legislation.
“We took the approach of looking the other way and hoping it would go away but it hasn’t,” he said of panhandling.
The RCMP will have the responsibility for issuing tickets and not city staff.
“It gives them (RCMP) an extra tool and hopefully they can deal with it,” said Cyr.
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