By: Hayley Chazan
Sandy Hill resident Brendan Steven was slapped with a $400 fine from the City of Ottawa in August 2013 after neighbours complained to Ottawa Bylaw Services about fireworks shot into their backyard.
According to an analysis of 311 Service Request data from the City of Ottawa, the Rideau-Vanier ward received 91 firework complaints in the months of May through August in 2013 and 2014 – nearly double the number of complaints received in the second highest ward.
Source: City of Ottawa 311 Service Request data May-August 2013 and 2014
The data showed that the City of Ottawa receives the largest number of firework complaints in the summer months, when the weather is warmer and more people are spending time outside. Rideau-Vanier is no exception.
Rideau-Vanier councillor, Mathieu Fleury, said that what he hears about most are complaints about young people going to parks and shooting consumer fireworks. Consumer fireworks are recreational fireworks sold to the public for everyday use.
He said that this can be particularly problematic in his ward, because residents of Sandy Hill and the Market live so close to green space that as soon as a firework goes off, it resonates off nearby buildings and houses.
“It’s normal that residents are less welcoming here than they are in rural areas.”
Christine Hartig, strategic support coordinator with Bylaw and Regulatory Services at the City of Ottawa said that in Rideau-Vanier, the most common complaint about consumer fireworks is that they’re noisy. Public safety concerns are rarely of concern to residents, she said.
Fleury said that he assumes that the large number of complaints is specific to one or two events. He said that he often hears of instances where one person creates a lot of havoc and this results in multiple calls to Bylaw Services in the span of a single night.
Because his ward is so dense, Fleury said that it’s possible that a series of neighbours could have been affected by one event.
According to the city’s bylaws, it is illegal for residents to use consumer fireworks, with a few exceptions near Victoria Day in May and Canada Day in July. Retailers in Ottawa are only permitted to sell consumer fireworks a week before each holiday.
But the data shows that not everyone abides by these rules. Rideau-Vanier received 53 firework complaints in June 2013 and 2014 and five complaints in August 2013 and 2014, months when fireworks were not permitted at all. The data also indicates that some complaints made in May and July 2013 and 2014 occurred outside of the permissible timeframes.
According to Ken Whyte, a firework retailer and wholesaler in Ottawa, the city’s bylaws only regulate the use of fireworks in the city limits, not the purchase or sale of fireworks in other jurisdictions. He said that because residents have access to consumer fireworks from other regions in Canada all year round through the web, they are more likely to use them even on dates when this activity isn’t permissible.
Hartig said that in Rideau-Vanier, consumer fireworks are most often used when young people are drinking and partying.
This is precisely what happened in Steven’s case when he threw a party at the house he was renting to celebrate the end of his summer job.
“Let me duly note that I – the law abiding host – did not bring or shoot the fireworks, but one of my irresponsible young whipsnapper guests did, and fired said fireworks without my knowledge,” Steven said.
By the time Bylaw Services arrived, the guests who had set off the fireworks were nowhere to be found, and Steven was stuck with the $400 bill.