Anti-idling to start with City

An anti-idling bylaw may be in Fort St. John’s future, but the first step will be up to the City to lead by example.

On Monday, Fort St. John City Council passed a motion to investigate moving toward a corporate-wide idle reduction policy, while also waiting for the Northern Environmental Action Team to complete the second phase of its education and awareness campaign before making any concrete decisions about a bylaw.

The City idle reduction policy would apply to City staff and City-owned vehicles.

After NEAT completes the second phase of its campaign, which began in January, the City says it would then re-examine the possibility of implementing an anti-idling or idle reduction bylaw.

The City also says it has taken into account comments both for and against an anti-idling bylaw from various websites, including Energeticcity.ca, and from letters it received. It found that the majority of comments opposed an anti-idling bylaw, whereas some comments were in favour of a bylaw and some were in favour of a bylaw depending on weather and temperature conditions.

Both Councillor Trevor Bolin and Mayor Bruce Lantz spoke in favour of educating residents about the benefits of idle reduction, however were opposed to immediately implementing a bylaw. Lantz also said he does not feel he could support an anti-idling bylaw even if the second phase of the study appears to support one.

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NEAT had submitted its first report to City Council based on information it collected between January and March 2011. Some of the results indicated that people idle their vehicles regardless of temperature and weather conditions and that some people believed their specific vehicles need to idle in cold weather.

However, the report also indicated that further baseline information is needed. Furthermore, it indicated that people should be informed of other benefits – including economic ones – associated with not idling their vehicles, in addition to associated health and environmental problems.