A councillor for the City of Windsor will be introducing a pilot project for aggressive panhandling to council next month.
Fred Francis, the councillor for ward 1, will be putting forward a two year project aimed at providing education on available resources and services for those who are aggressively panhandling in the city.
Under the proposed bylaw, the term aggressive applies to a manner that is likely to cause a reasonable person to be concerned for his or her safety or security, which could include involving threats or physical harm, by word, gesture, or other means, using abusive or intimidating language, soliciting while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs, or soliciting in a persistent or continuous manner.
He says that he doesn't want to focus so much on the ticketing and fining aspects, but on the education side.
Francis says he respects that people are worried about moving forward with an aggressive panhandling by-law.
"If it works then council can decide if it continues or not, and what modifications are needed. And if it doesn't work, then you just get rid of it, you stop it. I think that's reasonable. I'm willing to be reasonable. I think others around the council table are willing to be reasonable, but again, I respect people that have a difference of opinion on this, I respect people that have some hesitation and concern."
He says this by-law is not about getting rid of panhandling.
"We can not get rid of panhandling. People have a fundamental right to panhandle, no one is questioning that. What we're trying to do is add further measures to avoid conflict situations between people that are panhandling and people who are on the street, or crossing the street, or driving by the street where the panhandler might be."
Francis says at the end of the day it comes down to safety.
"We want to add further by-law measures for a couple of reasons, to increase the safety of the people panhandling, to increase the safety of the people not panhandling, and to try to avoid conflict situations."
Francis adds that he will be bringing the pilot project proposal to council in May.
He says until it's presented, he will speak with his fellow council colleagues to float this pilot project around to look for a more unanimous vote.
The call for a bylaw was raised by Francis during a January meeting as a way to address panhandling issues beyond the tools available to police, who can lay charges under the Ontario Safe Streets Act, which is targeted at aggressive solicitation.
-with files from AM800's Rob Hindi