Originally introduced during the last meeting in April, Weyburn City Council had allowed time for the public to provide feedback on the updated Fire and Protective Services bylaw and brought it back to the table Monday night for their third and final reading.

After the first two readings back on April 26th, the public was asked to submit their feedback on some of the items in the bylaw, which was updating the older bylaw. One of the few letters sent into City Hall was regarding the burning of pallets. The resident wasn’t in favour of the prohibition of burning pallets in fire pits, stating they are a hardwood and make an excellent burning material.

“We added that particular portion in the protective services bylaw just as a reinforcement measure, and the reason why we don’t want pallets burning is we can’t tell if a pallet has been contaminated with anything,” explained Fire Chief Simon Almond in response to the feedback.

Another item that was discussed during the meeting on April 26th was the issue of visible street numbers on homes. Mayor Marcel Roy was in favour of including the requirement for the numbers into the bylaw itself, but the final product didn’t address the issue.

“I’ll go ahead and I’ll support the bylaw as it is, but I will state to the rest of council that if we are finding that we are still complaining before the tenant shows up here at the end of the year, I’m going to ask for this to come back and be added in,” Roy stated.

Councillor Mel Van Betuw is in favour of education over the issue of street numbers compared to enforcement but didn’t rule out having to revisit the issue at a later date.

It is certainly necessary to educate the public towards that – it’s for their own safety and good health, and possibly if we do bring it back, maybe it can be done on a separate bylaw rather than being put into this bylaw,” van Betuw explained. He pointed out a number of issues that would have to be addressed in a bylaw itself, such as the size of the numbers, location on a building, lighting and more.

Ultimately, the councillors voted to approve the bylaw unanimously.