Thunder Bay needs to adopt anti-idling bylaw, local physician says

A physician in Thunder Bay, Ont., says the city needs to do more to curb people idling their vehicles, and she's proposing a new bylaw to enforce a change.

"The main issue is the pollution to the air for the idling that occurs," Nicki Wilberforce told CBC News. "There's a lot of heart and lung illnesses ... that have been shown to be related to pollution, so we're trying to decrease that."

Wilberforce spoke to city councillors at their meeting on Monday, where she proposed a bylaw that would levy fines against people who leave their vehicles running for more than a minute when temperatures are between 0 C and 30 C. The proposed bylaw would apply to public and private areas and to city and privately-owned vehicles.

Some exemptions would include for emergency vehicles while in operation, parade vehicles, mobile workshops where the motor is essential to the basic function of the vehicle and vehicles that use a heating or refrigeration system to preserve perishable cargo.

The adoption of such a bylaw would ideally be accompanied by public education, Wilberforce said, but added that enforcement would need to be done by city bylaw officers and as well as members of the public.

"It's going to require, in some cases, the public reporting on other people," she said. "Sometimes that's possible because people do have their cars running for five to 10 minutes or longer at times."

City councillors passed a motion on Monday directing city staff to examine the feasibility of implementing such a bylaw in Thunder Bay. Wilberforce said similar rules are in place in other cities across Canada — in some cases, with even stricter rules that don't allow for cold-weather idling.

"I would prefer that it would be a lower temperature than [the 0 C minimum] but I think that it would be harder ... to be passed if we don't have some kind of temperature exemptions in place," she said.

According to city administration, existing bylaws governing noise have some provisions around idling, but Wilberforce argued that they don't go far enough. Additionally, city staff said that internal policies dictate that municipal vehicles can't be left idling for more than a minute.

Wilberforce said, not only would an anti-idling bylaw help with air pollution, but people's vehicles will benefit too.

"Idling your car is worse for your car than warming it up by driving it," she said. "Sixty seconds is the longest that's ever needed."