The City of Red Deer will handle violation tickets for bar owners in a new way.
City council passed an amendment on Monday concerning the Drinking Establishment Licensing Bylaw.
The current bylaw doesn’t allow for municipal tickets to be issued to offenders for contraventions of the bylaw. The bylaw also doesn’t allow municipal enforcement officers to specify a penalty when issuing a violation ticket.
Erin Stuart, permits and licensing supervisor, said the ticket right now has to be written on a provincial ticket and it immediately must go to the courthouse.
“With this amendment, we can now write it on a municipal ticket, which allows the person in contravention more time to pay it through our office,” said Stuart.
This issue came to light when staff recently issued a ticket. It was noticed there were some issues administratively within the bylaw, said Stuart.
The bylaw has been around since 2004.
“I don’t think it was really noticed until this time and perhaps more tickets are being issued,” Stuart said.
The bylaw was created to deal with problems at drinking establishments, including disorderly conduct, littering and breaches of traffic and parking regulations.