Public gatherings in informal, unlicensed venues are creating risk management headaches for local officials in large and small Ontario communities. A recent submission from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) tallies health, safety and bylaw enforcement concerns, and urges the provincial government to address the resulting administrative and financial burdens.
“Municipalities recognize the importance of providing Ontarians with safe and affordable public spaces, and supporting the entertainment industry for local economic development and community well-being,” it states. “At the same time, Ontario’s municipalities are concerned about the potential negative repercussions associated with unlicensed event venues.”
Makeshift event spaces in barns, vacant commercial and industrial properties or residential dwellings inherently come with hazards arising from facilities that may not meet appropriate standards for fire alarms, exits and containment, load bearing, food handling, waste disposal and/or adequate bathrooms. Municipal emergency services responders and public health officials are first in line to deal with the fallout of the negative consequences from any of those failings.
Local officials also find themselves juggling complaints about excessive noise and disruptive behaviour emanating from unlicensed venues, and from operators of licensed facilities who have lost business to rogue event spaces. Municipalities likewise lose out financially since licensing is one of the few revenue generators they’re afforded in Canada’s breakdown of jurisdictional powers. Meanwhile, both large and small municipalities argue that limited resources inhibit their ability to respond.
“With municipal finances being under considerable strain, municipalities are challenged in hiring more staff to enforce bylaws at these events. Similarly, there is a challenge and impracticality of municipalities investigating those unlicensed events which are ‘pop-up’, temporary and unpredictable,” the AMO submission states.
AMO is now beseeching the Ontario government not to erode municipalities’ control over zoning bylaws so that they can “remain equipped to determine the regulations and actions that make sense to their local contexts” and is further highlighting the need for more financial autonomy and revenue sources to fulfill service delivery obligations. An earlier briefing on the latter topic calculates a roughly $4 billion shortfall between the responsibilities the province has downloaded and its provision of funds.
The submission additionally recommends that the provincial government lower the threshold for imposing fines, making it easier for municipalities to enforce penalties against hosts of unlicensed events. It suggests tax incentives could be used to lure currently unlicensed operators into the legitimate business stream, which would necessarily require health and safety and bylaw compliance. Short-term rental operators like Airbnb are also seen to have a role to play in imposing stricter consequences for sites on their platforms found to be hosting public events.
