London's COVID-19 tip line draws 200 complaints a day, these are the most common

London's top by-law officer says in less than a month, city hall's new COVID-19 tip line has received almost three-quarters of the complaints the city's bylaw department gets over the course of the year.  

The tip line was set up on March 27 in order to field complaints about people and businesses who are flouting the province's strict emergency orders meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus after the city's 911 dispatch became bombarded with concerns with possible transmission. 

In the last 26 days since the tip line and email address were established, London's chief bylaw officer, Orest Katolyk, said his department has received some 5,200 complaints, an average of 200 a day. 

"All the other bylaws we enforce that focus around consumer protection and public safety and property standards, we do approximately 8,000 complaints a year," Katolyk said.

"So within one month, less than a month even, we've already received over 5,000 complaints."

Businesses, gatherings among most common complaints

The most common complaint by far is over non-essential businesses, according to Katolyk, who said complaints about callous business owners flouting restrictions made up about a quarter of the entire complaint volume of the last 26 days. 

Two pawn shops, a pet store and a cannabis paraphernalia store have all been charged with operating counter to the province's emergency orders to remain closed to the public during the pandemic. 

Katolyk said the problem with some businesses is that the province's restrictions on how they should run during the emergency are not clearly defined in some cases. 

"The province is not providing anything in writing in terms of interpretation, they're leaving it up to businesses," he said. 

One such example is lawn maintenance which, along with the rest of the province's horticulture industry is pushing Ontario to loosen restrictions on their businesses during the pandemic and their busiest time, or risk irreparable damage to countless family businesses. 

"We were just inundated with calls about lawn maintenance because this is the beginning of the spring season," he said, noting bylaw officers decided last week to look the other way because certain lawn maintenance can be done while still maintaining a physical distance. 

"Any other projects for beautification purposes, say you're putting in a pond or expanding your deck, those are not permitted but lawn maintenance is," he said. 

Construction is also one of the most common complaints, according to Katolyk, who said the province's emergency orders are pretty specific about which projects can proceed and which can't. 

While you might think that would be limited to construction sites only, it isn't. Katolyk said some building and maintenance work on a homeowners property has been suspended until the epidemic is over. 

"Projects such as putting up a fence right now is not permitted, however maintenance of a pool is permitted because if you don't open up the pool in the next month or so you're going to have west nile virus issues."

Social gatherings the second most common complaint

Don't think the complaints are all about work though. Katolyk said people seeking the pleasure of each others' company is also a common complaint. In fact, gatherings of five people or more make up a fifth of the city's total call volume and are the second most common complaint. 

"Those kind of complaints are very difficult to enforce," he said. "The call will come in that there's people walking in a park and there's eight of them. Well, by the time we get there, they're gone and plus, you don't know if that's a family of eight that lives together."

"We have had some calls about people congregating for house parties, but no charges have been laid to date," he said. 

Fines are set by the province at $750, plus a victim surcharge, which upon conviction would cost you $880. 

The 32 tickets that have been issued to individuals are for using playground equipment, playing soccer or basketball on public fields or courts and skateboarding. 

"Skateboarding is a big one. Especially on nice weekends, we get a lot of those calls," Katolyk said. "We can definitely gauge how busy we're going to be by the weather man."

In fact, people misusing city parks and their amenities during the pandemic is the third most common complaint to city hall, according to Katolyk, which commonly involve people using park benches. 

He said bylaw officers use their discretion in writing tickets and once people understand they can't use park benches for next little while, they cooperate. 

"We get pretty well 100 per cent compliance with the benches. People just don't know."