- Target:
- The City of Kitchener, Mayor and Council
- Region:
- Canada
The signatures collected on this petition are being added to the 2300+ signatures collected on the first version.
A total of about 2400 signatures had been collected on both petitions when they were presented to Kitchener Council at to the Standing Committee meeting on February 25, 2013.
On March 4, 2013, Kitchener council voted 7-3 in favour of acceping the new draft by-law.
Effective April 1, 2013, backyard campfires are allowed to burn from 6 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with the fires set five metres from any fences, trees, structures, overhead wires and property lines even if there is no fence erected.
Pick up the phone, and call Office of the Mayor and Council at phone number 519-741-2300, or ask to speak to the council member for your ward.
Send an email to council@kitchener.ca if you are upset with the decision.
Dr. Wang from Region of Waterloo Public Health presented a 'media release' in Kitchener council during the Feb. 25, 2013 Standing Committee meeting. Dr. Wang spoke about the health effects of wood smoke resulting from indoor fireplaces as well as outdoor campfire wood smoke pollution
The Record and Kitchener Post reporters who at the meeting skipped mentioning Dr. Wang's wood smoke public health presentation in both of the written accounts of the meeting.
Please call the Region of Waterloo Public Health Department at phone number 519-883-2000 if you have questions, or concerns. You have the right to request that this information be made available to you.
If a neighbor is breaking bylaw regulations, or smoke is a nuisance, please call Waterloo Region Police Department phone number 519-653-7700 for non-urgent complaints. A Kitchener Bylaw Enforcement Officer will be dispatched to help you.
Bylaw enforcement will be increased during peak backyard campfire season with a new target of a 2-hour response time for bylaw complaint calls.
If the smoke is bothering you, please complain under the smoke nuisance provision.
Start keeping a record of campfire problems by writing down dates, times and the kind of complaint. If no one has come to help you after 2 hours go by, call again.
If you have friends or neighbours who live in Waterloo along the border of Kitchener, and they are being affected by smoke nuisance, or other campfire problems, please mention this information to them. Waterloo residents should call the Waterloo Region Police phone number, and a Kitchener Bylaw Enforcement Officer will be sent to assist them even though they live in Waterloo.
If the yard with the campfire is very small, please insist that the Bylaw Officer MEASURE the setback distance, and record the results on the report. The campfire setback must be 5 m. from any property line even if there is no fence separating the yards.
Notes about the petition:
Please verify the email address that you sign the petition with to make sure that it is correct. You will receive a confirmation email for each signature submitted to that email account.
You may sign all family members up using one email account. If your friends or neighbours lack a computer and they wish to add their names to the petition, please sign them up on your email account.
Email addresses will not be included in any type of list.
The printed off copy of this petition will include only names, postal codes, and comments.
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The City of Kitchener, ON, still allows burning wood in backyard campfires (firepits, chimineas and outdoor fireplaces) in small residential backyards.
Waterloo's solid-fuel open-air ban came into effect on January 1, 2012. It is not legal to burn wood in firepits, chimineas or outdoor fireplaces. Prior to the ban, the setback was 10 m.
Cambridge has banned backyard campfires from residential properties since 1986. Cambridge has a burn permit system, however, a 150 m. setback to buildings is required for proper dispersal of smoke before it leaves the property.
Kitchener residents deserve public health, public safety and environmental protections that a ban will provide.
It is unacceptable to expose unwilling neighbours to secondhand wood smoke pollution. We should also be able to enjoy our yards and houses between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. every day without having to smell campfire smoke.
The Region of Waterloo Public Health Department's wood smoke position statement was revised in December 2012 to add a link to the Health Canada website and warns that some of the chemicals produced during the burning of wood have a possible link to cancer. Children, the elderly, and people with respiratory or cardiac conditions are most at risk when they are exposed to wood smoke.
The health of Kitchener residents should not be compromised by wood smoke pollution from campfires burning in residential areas.
We call on the Mayor and Council of Kitchener, ON to ban solid-fuel open air firepits, chimineas and outdoor fireplaces from residential backyards.
These fires are not allowed in most other cities of Ontario, and we strongly believe that Kitchener should be the next city to have these fires banned from backyards.
We want this highly polluting form of backyard habit to be banned.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Kitchener, ON Backyard Campfire Ban - Firepit Ban petition to The City of Kitchener, Mayor and Council was written by Kitchener Backyard Campfire Ban and is in the category Health at GoPetition.