After a noise exemption was permitted for an event last weekend without the knowledge of council and the mayor, the city is looking at reviewing the approval process for events.
Last weekend at Riverside Park an open ground Garba event took place that ran late into the night and some were angry due to the loud noise of music travelling across the river and into residential neighbourhoods.
"I received multiple complaints that night from the community, but I wanted to wait until 11 p.m. which is usually the time when the noise has to be reduced," said Ward 3 Councillor Corey Kimpson.
"After 11, the music and complaints still started coming in so I asked bylaw to go down and take a look."
Garba is a traditional Indian dance of Hindu origin performed by a large circle of dancers. It is also considered a religious and social event.
Kimpson notes that when bylaw arrived, the organizers of the event were very cooperative and handed over all permits and paperwork for the gathering.
What the Ward 3 councillor saw next took her by surprise as the event was approved to run until 12 a.m., well past the closure of the park and the noise bylaw at 11 p.m.
"It seems that somewhere along the way, there was a noise exemption given to this event, but there was no council meeting on it and no information given to us to notify the public of the event," she said.
The following week, Kimpson organized a meeting with city staff and the mayor to get to the bottom of this issue, but still, no answer could be provided on how this event was approved to run until midnight.
The meeting also highlighted an interesting crack in the events approval system that prevented any other noise exemptions from coming to the city council.
Kimpson notes that bringing these exemptions to council are usually a formality that informs the public of any events that would require such a permit, but also informs the councillors of what is happening in their respective wards.
"Right now the city is reviewing a number of our bylaws including for noise and fireworks. Someone had decided while these were under review that these exemptions would not be coming to council," she said.
This failure to recognize the event's late run time and poor communication with the public and councillors has prompted Kimpson to launch an investigation into the matter and start a review of all the events that have already been approved for further verification.
"We are looking at every event to make sure they are inline with our policies," she said. "I don't want any organizer to think we are singling them out, because we appreciate all the events that are held in our city and offer our residents something to do and have fun."
This noise exemption was not a singular event as another event slipped through the cracks and was approved to run until midnight this weekend at Riverside Park. It was another Garba event that was expected to be even larger than the previous one.
Kimpson was able to jump on the issue right away and have city staff communicate with the organizers, making changes that would be more inline with city policy.
"The organizers, again have been very cooperative and understanding through all of this," she said. "We were able to move the location to the back of the park to create a sort of buffer between the event and residents and they agreed to end the event at 10 p.m."
The event has now been moved to the sports fields near the 401 highway at the back of Riverside Park.
The earlier end time would also allow eventgoers to exit the park by its normal closure time of 11 p.m.
Kimpson also noted the area that was originally approved for the event is in a spot that frequently floods and the weather forecast called for significant rain that could have damaged equipment and the fields themselves if they were full of people.
The city is also looking at hiring a manager to oversee all events and approvals to help mitigate issues in the future.
"Our goal is to be an inclusive city that works for everyone including those who want to go out and those who want a nice quiet evening at home," said Kimpson. "We already have the tools in place to do this, so we need to get back and fix this mistake."
