Gord Wyant must feel pretty confident of a win in the 2011 provincial election. His usual MO is to schmooze, rather than to piss off, a fellow councillor. Although I agree that the matter of pet urination might seem trivial, I think Dubois was right in that her responsibility is to deal with matters of concern to her constituents. I can't believe administration spent much time preparing this report, and given the length of time that elapsed since the inquiry was submitted, it obviously was not taken seriously. Nor will the report on dress code for public golf courses get much consideration.
Good news is that this item didn't cause an increase of property tax. If these councillors keep themselves busy on these types of matters, rather than spending, we might get property tax relief.
As it stands, we are getting comic relief.
Happy Canada Day. Celebrate and enjoy the long weekend.
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I commend Gord Wyant for calling a spade a spade. Our city council spends a laughable amount of time dealing with triviality - pet urination, people urination, spitting on the sidewalk, crow hunting, and day naming, just to name a few things that spring to mind immediately. All the while our city infrastructure continues to crumble, and the least among us struggle to even make ends meet.
ReplyDeleteOur city council is a joke.
Good for Councillor Dubois for dealing with the issues brought forward to her by the people in and outside of her constituency, no matter who thinks they're trivial.
ReplyDeleteAs for Gord Wyant, he'd be wise to not forget he's only the candidate for Saskatoon Northwest, he hasn't won the election! I sure hope that none of the people he plans on representing have any "trivial" issues that are beneath him to give the time to.
The issues of the people no matter how small are never trivial.
ReplyDeleteI think Wyant's position is rather straightforward. He has decided that this is a dumb issue, probably in large part because it IS a dumb issue. He is banking that the vast majority of Saskatoon residents agree.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope they do.
Councillor Dubois area is certainly elitist if they are worried about dog pee - next thing you know, the city is going to reporting that pigeons are crapping on the street and can't administration do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteFor those coming down on Councillor Wyant for calling a spade a spade - I believe he was ALSO responding to his constituents who were raising concerns over a waste of money and time researching the dog pee law!
I don't live in what 'Anonymous' (of July 6) called the 'elitist' area of Saskatoon, but I assure you all that dog pee is and can be an awful issue for some of us. I work hard to keep up a nice property and because of the location I'm in, am frequented by dog walkers who allow their dogs to pee, mark, poo (not always scooped) and dig in my yard. Dog's pee will not only ruin lawn but it will cause shrubs, perennials and annuals to die. A dog's pee or mark will cause every other dog to also want to pee and mark there and eventually the plants die. I count my losses in the hundreds of dollars. To build a fence around my property is a huge expense. Confrontations with dog walkers who don't think it's a big deal to let their animal ruin my property can turn out badly, requiring the assistance of the police.
ReplyDeleteNone of this is 'trivial' to me. Dubois was right to bring it forward, and those who think it's a waste of their tax dollars should be GRATEFUL they've not experienced what some of us have or do. I pay my taxes too and should be able to have this issue looked at just as much as other taxpayers can have issues that bother them (but might seem trivial to me because I'm not in their shoes).
Mr. Wyant could've considered the other side before dismissing our concerns (and financial losses and potential confrontations with other Saskatonians) as a waste of time.
Then again, perhaps now that we all know he considers it a waste of time to come up with a solution... we should save our receipts each time we have to replace a shrub that's killed by ignorant dog owners, and expect Mr. Wyant (or the city) to reimburse us? Perhaps then it wouldn't seem so trivial? Or how about the rest of you citizens who think our concerns are trivial? Would you like to chip in to replace my dead plants? If someone came to YOUR yard and poured some chemical on your shrubs, and then they died and cost you money and time to replace, wouldn't you think you should have some recourse... or would you just suck it up because it's too trivial a problem to ask anyone for help with?
A bylaw prohibiting allowing animals to urinate/mark on private property would be a start. We could catch a video (check youtube... frustrated people take photos and video and put it online to humiliate the dog owners because there's little else we can do) and provide it as the evidence required to fine someone with a bylaw in effect. Right now, we can't do a darn thing.
When people get frustrated because there's no legal help available, they do rash things. In Feb. of this year in Citrus Heights, Calif., a man shot and killed a dog who repeatedly defecated in his yard. In May, an argument over a dog-walker's dog using a Chicago homeowner's yard as a toilet resulted in the dog owner being fatally shot.
It's sad and tragic that when we can enact simple laws to allow people who are being victimized repeatedly by pet owners with no manners, decency or respect for others' property... that we don't because people think it's too 'trivial'. People need to feel that there is a legal and proper path they can take when something wrong is happening to them, or they can end up doing something rash simply because one day, 'that' was the last straw.
Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you judge! Saskatoon City Council should smarten up and realize just because something isn't happening to them doesn't make it trivial to the person it is happening to.
The dollars invested in even one call to the police to resolve a neighbour dispute resulting from a dog pee/poop incident is where the taxpayer dollar is truly wasted. Give us a bylaw and let us make the effort to get video/photos to make the bylaw enforceable. If we're willing... what's the sense in NOT having the bylaw?