The noise by-law in the Municipality of Lakeshore has officially been updated.
During Tuesday's meeting, council approved some minor updates to the by-law - which hadn't been updated since 2007.
In August 2022, council voted to hold public consultation on updating the by-law. A public open house took place in August 2023, as well as an online survey, for residents to have their say.
In September 2023, the results were shared with council, where a motion was then passed for administration to speak with Ontario Provincial Police regarding enforcement for noise, and for a draft by-law to be drawn up.
This updated by-law has added prohibited noises, or updated the language in the previous by-law. A lot of noise is prohibited at all times if it disrupts the peace, quiet, or comfort of any person, meaning noise needs to be reasonable.
Council did update that the times of use for power equipment is only allowed between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. They also expanded fireworks permissions to acknowledge other days of religious significance.
Kelsey Santarossa, Lakeshore councillor, says some main changes were around the hours of allowed use for power equipment.
"7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and then 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday, and we've also expanded out fireworks permissions as well as part of the noise by-law to acknowledge other days of religious or cultural significance, so we're really happy to see some of those inclusions as well."
She says while there was discussion of using a decibel meter for sound, it was not recommended and council decided to not include it in this by-law.
"It's actually really difficult to defend, so you have to make sure of course that your decibel reader was calibrated properly, and you have to have logs to prove those things if it went to civic court or anything else like that. So it's not the most reliable way to actually capture the impact of noise in a community."
Santarossa says it has been many years since the by-law was updated.
"It was really just making sure that we had a general understanding of what the noise by-law was trying to accomplish, and that that's not silence across the board at all times, it's really just being a reasonable and a good neighbour, and being mindful of your surroundings and having some good parameters around what that looks like."
This new by-law officially went into effect with council approved it.
Complaints related to excessive noise and investigated and enforced by both the by-law department, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police.