“We are actively patrolling and ticketing owners who do not respect the regulations” says Mary Deros
The subject has dominated the news for quite a few months now. Garbage left in private properties that accumulated and festered in the heat. A local group of concerned citizens joined with city counselor Mary Deros to tackle the problem and pressure the city to do something about it.
After a successful media blitz, the city listened. Cleanliness inspections were carried out in Parc-Extension in June, July, and August this past summer and City counsellor for Park Extension, Mary Deros provided Park-Ex news with actual numbers.
The number of inspections reached 87 in June and 43 in July. The number of non-compliance notices were 34 in June and 17 in July and finally the number umber of findings of offence were 6 in June and 2 issued for July and a few being drafted for July.
However, the big operation happened in August. During the week of August 1, a team mobilized to carry out inspections, started with rue de Liège and then proceeded to inspect in the quadrangle north of rue Jarry between rue Querbes and rue de l’Acadie. The last two weeks, the borough has added two teams to have 3 operating at the same time. The work was carried out over a period of 14 days.
Just during the 3-week blitz, more than 387 searches were carried out by the inspection teams. The borough issued 66 notices and 109 statements of offense in the Parc-Extension district alone. In addition, the Park-ex partner organization Ville en vert distributed more than 1,000 door-to-door notices in addition to raising awareness in certain sectors of the neighbourhood. The city then took the opportunity to distribute the collection schedule again (in English and French).
The total number of inspections carried were 520 with 120 notices of non-compliance and 115 statements of offence given.
“We are actively patrolling and ticketing owners who do not respect the regulations. However it is not possible to ticket an owner just because 2 days ago he left some garbage out.” Said Mary Deros
Deros has also ramped up efforts to praise and promote well kept and beautiful gardens of her constituents as a means to encourage the others to care about the borough by keeping clean and beautifying their properties. Uploads to her Facebook page showing of beautiful and well kept properties have been gathering a lot of likes and positive attention.
