Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jan 25/99) - Iqaluit's municipal bylaw officers are cracking down and for local residents, this means more and more tickets are on the horizon.

John Tagak, the bylaw officer calling the shots in the department these days, and his sidekick Johnathan Ellsworth, said that the citizens of the town have been given enough warnings over the last seven months and that it was time for them to take bylaw enforcement one step further.

News/North caught up with the pair and found out what some of their goals are for the upcoming year.

News/North: When did you take over this job?

JT: I started on June 1.

News/North: You were in the fire department before this?

JT: I was the supervisor of dispatching the medical technicians.

News/North: I've heard that since you came on board, more tickets have been given out. What changed?

JT: A lot of that came from me learning my job and just keeping busy. There's a lot happening out there and a lot of new people ... there's enough to keep us busy for a long time.

News/North: How many tickets did you give out in 1998 compared to 1997?

Johnathan Ellsworth: Traffic tickets were a little more in 1997. There were 91 traffic tickets in 1997 and 37 in 1998. However, there were 26 warnings in 1997 and 229 in 1998.

News/North: Why is that? Why all of a sudden do we see such a drastic increase in the number of warnings?

JT: I think the big difference is the number of vehicles on the road. We've got a lot of new vehicles coming up every sealift and not as many are being taken to the dump so there are more and more vehicles on the road.

News/North: What are your responsibilities as a bylaw officer?

JT: We can only enforce the municipal bylaws, the Motor Vehicle Act and the All Terrain Vehicles Act.

News/North: Does the All Terrain Vehicles Act include snowmobiles?

JT: Yes, and we've got one snowmobile that can be used. It's equipped with a red light but no siren.

News/North: How do you go about enforcing those laws?

JT: A lot of times we go driving and patrol everywhere. We make trips out to the landfill site to see if there's anyone transporting garbage not covered, it's supposed to be covered with a tarp while they're driving on the road. It keeps garbage from flying out the back and littering the roads. We do lots of radar patrol for speeding.

While we're driving, we're looking for people not stopping at stop signs or stopping at the crosswalks so people can cross the road. We're looking for people with no taillights or no headlights and expired licenses and licence plates.

News/North: What about drinking and driving offenses? Are you responsible for those?

JT: The police are for now. I'm going through the community constable program where, when I'm done, I get appointed as a peace officer and I can enforce some Criminal Code stuff. If I did stop somebody who was intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol, I would call the RCMP.

News/North: So you would do a breathalyser or set up a Check Stop?

JT: Not a breathalyser but we can set up Check Stops. That's where we stop people on the road and check for driver's licence, insurance, registration, but if I did smell alcohol, I would be calling the RCMP.

News/North: What kind of bylaws are you enforcing? What does that include?

JT: There's lots of bylaws -- the numbers right now are about 400 and something and new bylaws replace old ones.

As far as enforcing them, we've got the dog control bylaw, the all-terrain vehicles bylaw, the highway traffic bylaw, solid waste bylaw, zoning and development bylaw, lottery licence bylaw. There's lots of other bylaws too but there's no enforcement on those because they're administrative bylaws.

News/North: What are people doing when you're giving out warnings?

JT: Mostly speeding.

News/North: Is there a lot of speeding here in town?

JT: There was. It's not as bad now ... there's still quite a lot going on at night. Johnathan and I are both working flex-time. It's very random and we work some evenings and we get a lot of people there.

News/North: If speeding is the number one infraction, what's number two?

JT: People running stop signs or traffic signs.

News/North: What's the absolute hardest part of your job?

JT: Giving somebody a ticket. They did break a bylaw or a law but when I give them a ticket, they're either going to court or forcing them to fork out money from their pockets.

News/North: Have you made some enemies along the way?

JT: Oh yeah. But it's like I tell everybody else, I'm not in this job to make friends. It's a job that's got to be done.

News/North: Has it gotten any easier?

JE: It hasn't gotten any easier. Sometimes I lay up at night worried that maybe somebody's going to come along and put holes in my tires or something.

News/North: Johnathan, when did you sign on as the bylaw officer trainee?

JE: I had wanted to get into bylaw or the RCMP, any part of the law really, since I finished high school. I kept asking when's the next position coming up and around mid-September I put in my application and on October 13, I was offered the job.

News/North: What are your responsibilities?

JE: I'm still in training right now and learning how to do lots of stuff. I was just appointed by council last night as a bylaw officer so I can write tickets. John and I do everything together as far as enforcing bylaws and paperwork.

The reason the warnings are so high is because we're trying to be more proactive. We don't want people to think that we're just out there to make money and write tickets. We want them to understand that we're doing this for the safety of the community and the children not just because the town needs extra revenue.

News/North: Do people try and talk you out of giving them tickets?

JE: I have had people say "Come on, I'm having a bad day." We've heard them all. People say that their kids are at home alone. We've heard some pretty far-fetched stories.

JT: The best one I heard was when this guy was getting ready for a banquet and he said, "Come on, my wife's got my pants." That was a good one. We get a lot of people saying they weren't speeding even though we've got them on radar.

News/North: What are your future plans for the bylaw department?

JT: I'm going to start cracking down now and writing more tickets. I've given out an awful lot of warnings. The public has seen us out there and they know we're out there.