The City of Kamloops has brought in changes to the way the so-called ‘good neighbour’ bylaw is being enforced, including making nuisance home owners now pay for any calls to the police.

Under the changes, if someone is deemed a nuisance property owner under the bylaw, if the RCMP are called out to their home, they could be hit with a bill for that service.

The City will charge 190 dollars per hour for a police cruiser to attend a nuisance call, on top of 50 dollars for each officer which shows up in said vehicle.

“Somebody’s partying, and we keep getting calls, the RCMP have to attend, and they end up sending two RCMP officers with each driving a vehicle…so then what would happen, we would monitor that call, look at how many officers attended, the time spent dealing with that call,” said Community Services Manager Tammy Blundell.

She notes in cases like this, home owners could end up facing penalties of around 500 to 600 dollars every time the RCMP were called.

However, Blundell says if the property owner calls the RCMP or first responders out of a legitimate need, they would not be hit with penalties under the ‘good neighbour’ bylaw.

“Even though you’ve been given a 6.3 notice (nuisance notification), and you have a heart attack…or someone in your home has a heart attack, and then the ambulance or fire department have to show up, that call will not be charged back to the property owner. Because that is an emergency.”

At the same time, Blundell notes there is room to interpret the bylaw in a way so that someone who doesn’t like their neighbour can’t abuse the system.

“I don’t wanna just rely on the officer discussion, but [rather] discretion within the bylaw that allows the officer, the supervisor and/or manager, and/or director to make a call whether it then becomes a neighbourly dispute.”