Upwards of 350 stray shopping carts are collected in Red Deer each week, yet Coun. Buck Buchanan withdraw his notice of motion to try to control the local abandoned cart problem.
“I introduced the motion to get people talking, and that was a good thing,” said Buchanan at Monday’s council meeting. But he agreed when Councillors Dianne Wyntjes and Ken Johnston asked him to consider pulling it so that other solutions could be discussed without treading on the rights of vulnerable, homeless people.
Red Deer City manager Craig Curtis noted that Vernon, B.C. council tried banning stray carts on public property but was told it could turn into a legal issue over personal rights.
Buchanan vowed that the local stray cart issue still will be discussed. He suggested perhaps city administrators will come back to council with options. “It needs to be dealt with,” he said.
The size of the problem was highlighted in Curtis’s report to council. He wrote that a city-hired contractor collects about 200 to 250 stray carts a week. City staff collect about 100 carts a week.
“There’s no doubt that shopping carts are an issue. However, the carts are often the only means… homeless citizens have to transport their belongings,” stated Curtis. He also noted many local businesses have complained about the theft of their carts, which often end up in parks and streams.
Both Curtis and Buchanan agreed that stray carts are a symptom a lack of shelter, housing and other supports. When asked if the city’s Plan to End Homelessness was working, Buchanan laughed, then said, “has it totally worked? Absolutely not… we still have a distance to go.”
Buchanan argued in favour of his other notice of motion about starting a mandatory local bike registry and having repercussions for thieves who tamper with serial numbers and the conversion of stolen bikes for resale.
Curtis noted a voluntary bike registry that has already been identified in the 2019-2020 Annual Policing Plan. The city manager said this kind of program has been very successful in other Canadian jurisdictions with no registration cost for users.
But Buchanan said these other cities probably don’t have as big a problem as Red Deer with bikes being repainted, re-built with different parts and resold.
He added, the annual policing plan “is not our document,” so council wouldn’t have much say over how the voluntary registry is run.
Other councillors questioned how costly his mandatory registry would be, and how to enforce a bylaw that prohibits modified bikes? Coun. Tanya Handley said her 13-year-old son adds duct tape to his own his bike: “Would that make him a target of police?”
Stating more time is needed to discussion issue, Coun. Dianne Wyntjes made a tabling motion. And most of council (with the exception of Buchanan and Coun. Frank Wong, who was absent for the vote), opted to bring the subject back to council by next March.