Vernon businessman Bob Sattler pushed this cart and mattress from outside Hi-Pro Corporate Sportswear, where it was abandoned, over to the Gateway Shelter and was fined $100.

Image Credit: Bob Sattler

VERNON - Vernon bylaw is clearing up some misconceptions about what it can and can’t do when it comes to illegally dumped garbage on private property.

According to Vernon protective services manager Geoff Gaucher, bylaw won’t come and clean up garbage left outside a business or residence — that’s the owner’s job — but it will investigate and issue fines under the refuse collection bylaw when possible.

That was the case earlier this month when a local businessman moved a shopping cart and mattress abandoned outside his store over to the Gateway Shelter. The shelter filed a complaint with Vernon bylaw about the illegally dumped garbage; bylaw investigated and ultimately gave a ticket to the man, who was caught on video surveillance. Bob Sattler, the general manager of Hi-Pro Corporate Sportswear, says he was fined $100, a ticket he intends to fight in court.

Now, people complain all the time about garbage, shopping carts, sleeping gear, and needles being left in front entranceways, back alleys and parking lots, and most don’t result in fines. Gaucher says there are some specific reasons for that.

“A lot of it has to do with what the complainant would like,” Gaucher says. “We always ask ‘what are you looking for? Do you want us to talk to them? Do you want a (warning) letter sent? Do you want a charge laid? In this particular case, the complainant wanted a charge laid.”

If you want a charge laid (meaning a ticket is issued) you have to be prepared to testify in court if the fine is contested, Gaucher says. Not everyone is prepared to do that, in which case a warning may suffice.

In other cases, it’s impossible to find out who left the garbage in the first place. Unless there is video surveillance, an eyewitness, or something within the garbage that identifies a person, such as mail, it’s difficult to track down the perpetrators, Gaucher says.

Still, they would try, Gaucher says, adding that’s what bylaw would have done if the businessman had called them instead of taking the refuse over to the shelter.

“We would’ve done the same thing for investigation, but he’d still have to clean it up,” Gaucher says.

That’s because the refuse was left on private property. 

“If someone leaves refuse on private property, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to pick it up,” Gaucher says. “It’s like if someone left a bag of garbage in your yard, you’d be responsible for picking it up.”

Public property, such as streets, laneways and parks is a different story, and Gaucher says bylaw officers spend a lot of time cleaning up debris.

“There is a fair bit of trash that gets hauled away by bylaw compliance officers. It might be as simple as a piece of cardboard used as bedding — we pick up a lot of that,” he says.

Backpacks, clothing and personal items may be held onto for a month or so to see if they can be returned to their owners, but if it’s just garbage, it goes to the dump.

“I absolutely feel for the folks in the downtown business community that are finding garbage dumped on their properties,” Gaucher says. “I certainly empathize with the predicament they’re in.”

He says concerned business owners should look into crime prevention through environmental design, the idea that structural changes can deter unwanted activities by making spaces less attractive or convenient.

“If you were to walk down the back lanes, some properties have gated or fenced their alcoves off, because those are attractants to people sheltering overnight or perhaps using street drugs,” Gaucher says. “If you’re able to gate off those areas you prevent people sheltering in them and it cuts down on debris. If it’s inconvenient to go there, folks will go someplace else.”

He also suggests that people familiarize themselves with who to call when something is wrong. Trespassing, for instance, is an RCMP matter, as are most offences related to fights, mischief and drug use, while bylaw handles things like refuse and aggressive panhandling.

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