“In addition to our work to crack down on slum landlords with the Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) program, I have pushed for improvements to bylaw enforcement. After providing direction for an operational review, I was pleased that we approved the hiring of additional bylaw enforcement officers and an implementation plan to improve service. This year we will see these changes hit the ground with more proactive, efficient, and consistent enforcement of bylaws to include escalated fines for repeat offenders. These improvements will compliment the work we are doing to hold slum landlords and repeat offenders accountable for their bad behaviour.”
– Councillor Rowena Santos, Wards 1 & 5, Chair of Legislative Services.
Over the years, I have heard concerns from residents regarding bylaw enforcement across the city. Here is some good news for the changes being implemented in 2025.
Based on feedback from residents and the implementation of the Residential Rental Licensing Pilot, on December 7, 2023, I asked that staff conduct a comprehensive operational review of Enforcement and By-law Services to improve service. On April 24, 2024, Council received the report entitled Enforcement Operational Review Findings and Recommendations and directed staff to bring forward an implementation plan. In June 2024, we approved staff’s recommendations to include hiring an additional 26 full-time and 14 part-time bylaw officers in order to meet demands, especially related to property standards, parking complaints and the RRL pilot.
I am pleased to share that the implementation of the Enforcement & By-Law Services’ Staffing Stabilization Model is progressing well and is nearing completion in Q1 2025. Below are key updates on the impacts of this stabilization investment.
Please note that with these changes, residents are strongly encouraged to report issues through “request for service” (RFS) and obtaining COBI reference numbers. This is an important step so we can identify hotspot areas and repeat
offenders. Please continue to report issues online at: 311 service request page
Staffing
Key roles to manage priorities have been hired in order to streamline and efficiently manage complaints and ensure consistency in enforcement:
- Escalations and Communications Supervisor: to specifically deal with escalated requests for service and ensure timely and effective customer service.
- Analyst: this role will provide accurate metrics to identify hotspots and improve resource deployment.
- Training Supervisor: with the nearly 40% increase in by-law and enforcement staffing, the Training Supervisor is an essential and critical requirement to ensure consistent and comprehensive support to employees.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Enhancements
New SOPs take a ‘solutions-focused’ approach, to effectively address community concerns in an efficient, proactive manner.
While all requests for service are being reviewed, new approaches to managing Additional Rental Units (ARU) and Residential Rental Licensing (RRL) have been prioritized based on hotspots and urgent solutions. The top priority is safety and wellbeing of our community through promoting registration and licence requirements, while also upholding property standards that matter most to residents – including adherence to parking rules, lawn maintenance, refuse (garbage), and snow removal requirements.
This focus has led to the development of the “loop” enforcement methodology, to proactively attend hotspots in a logical and efficient geographical order. Previously, when utilizing a ‘reactive’ enforcement model, officers’ time was largely consumed with travelling to the different enforcement areas, often requiring multiple trips across the city throughout their shift.
Proactive 'Loop' Enforcement
Four city-wide loops have been created for parking infractions, utilizing metrics that identify high complaint and repeat offender locations. Focus will be on timed offences and sidewalk/roadway overhang as well as identified ARU/RRL parking concerns.
Prioritization of Property Standards
The current process is that all Property Standards RFS are placed directly on an officer’s task list, and they are indistinguishable from each other. Effective immediately, time-sensitive RFS (e.g., vital services, refuse complaint, overgrown lawn, ongoing construction) will be identified as a Priority ‘1’ and will take precedence over other tasks on the officer’s list. Repeat Property Standards RFS will be escalated to enforcement immediately.
A refuse complaint to an ARU in January will result in an Order to Comply being issued. The property owner will then be required to comply, or officers will arrange for remediation. Regardless of outcome, any further validated RFS complaints over the next 12 months will immediately result in a Penalty Notice to be issued upon first contact, in addition to the issuance of another Order to Comply.
Properties that were the subject of ‘overgrown grass/weeds’ in 2024 will be receiving an “educational” mailout in Spring 2025, outlining property standards expectations for lawn maintenance as well as the 2025 enforcement approach. The 2025 Enforcement Process will be that properties that are the subject of an overgrown grass and weeds RFS, and who were the subject of a similar complaint in 2024, will immediately receive a Penalty Notice upon first contact and an Order to Comply will also be immediately issued. The focus of this process will be RRL-specific wards.
Increased Parking Fines for Repeat Offenders
Increased penalties to be levied on improperly parked vehicles that have received a similar Penalty Notice within the past six months.
Community Standards Blitz Scheduled for 2025
In 2025, a coordinated enforcement effort will be implemented, combining resources from Property Standards, RRL, overgrown lawn, and parking enforcement.
