Unlike their counterparts in Surrey, the City of Burnaby and Burnaby RCMP have not launched a dedicated team to enforce public health orders about social distancing and public gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Made up of bylaw officers and Mounties, the Surrey team conducts outreach to businesses, faith-based locations, event locations and recovery homes to educate people about COVID-19 and make sure they are abiding by public health orders designed to stop the spread of deadly virus, according to a Surrey RCMP press release Monday.
The team will be proactively patrolling in popular areas where people continue to congregate, including parks and beaches, the release said.
This past weekend the Surrey team proactively conducted compliance checks at 106 locations and issued seven warnings.
They also responded to 13 calls for service related to the mandatory health orders.
In Burnaby, meanwhile, the city’s four-person bylaw bike team, which patrols parks seven days a week, is now looking out for folks violating orders, according to communications manager Chris Bryan.
“We have teams of two patrolling areas that are closed (e.g. playgrounds, sports fields, basketball and tennis courts, etc.) to provide notice to anyone found in these areas that they are in violation of the parks bylaw,” he said.
Anyone caught using closed amenities can now be slapped with fines of up to $500.
The city also has property-use coordination staff working proactively and in coordination with the RCMP and the Fraser Health Authority to monitor businesses to ensure compliance with provincial health orders, according to Bryan.
And Burnaby’s COVID action team, a task group made up of people from various city departments, including parks, engineering, bylaws and licensing, is also responding to reports from the public to a dedicated COVID call-centre phone line (604-570-3800) and email account (covid19@burnaby.ca), as well as to reports made on social media.
Bryan said the phone line has gotten as many as 90 calls on some days.
In general, however, he said local residents and businesses are following the direction of the provincial health officer and practising physical distancing.
For those that aren’t, the city can take actions ranging from writing warning letters to shutting down businesses, according to Bryan.
For now, however, Burnaby RCMP isn’t involved in the enforcement of any of the public health orders, according to spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj.
“We do know there’s going to be more information coming on that,” Kalanj told the NOW. “I think our (chief superintendent) even mentioned that in the briefing (Tuesday) morning that we’ll have more information as the days go forward, but right now City of Burnaby bylaws are going to do any enforcement.”
When Burnaby RCMP helps with bylaw enforcement – investigating a late-night noise complaint, for example – Kalanj said officers record details, names and numbers, and then hand the information over to the city’s bylaw office for follow-up.
