LaSalle looks into policy limiting frivolous bylaw complaints, some residents feel 'harassed' by neighbours

LaSalle town council has asked its staff to come up with a policy to address frivolous and vexatious complaints from residents — saying some people are using the town's bylaw division to harass neighbours and express displeasure over annoyances that are not bylaw violations.

Mayor Crystal Meloche introduced the motion at Tuesday night's council meeting.

"We've seen an uptick in neighbourly disputes," Meloche told CBC. "And they find the best way, I guess, to anger their neighbours – or I don't know what it is – is to call the bylaw department, and they put in complaints."

LaSalle's bylaw department received 325 complaints in 2024, according to a report provided to council in April.

That's a 21 per cent increase over 2023, when there were 268 complaints.

Town takes complaints seriously

Staff estimate that the town's population has only grown around 10 per cent since 2021, said Director of Finance Dale Langlois.

The overwhelming majority of the complaints, 191 in total, were related to the town's clean yard bylaw, representing a 59 per cent increase over 2023 numbers, according to the report.

"The main offences included tall grass/weeds and exterior property debris, which resulted in the completion of 16 properties being remediated/cut by the town's employed third-party contractors," the report read.

The town takes complaints seriously, Meloche said, so bylaw officers will visit properties, make sure residents are complying with bylaws, educate them on how to comply if not, and follow up to make sure they've addressed any problems. 

"But what we're seeing is neighbours who are calling for reasons that are not against municipal bylaws," she said. "We will go out there, and we will confirm that the neighbour's compliant, and nothing needs to be done.

"And the neighbour will call again, and they will put in another complaint ... So what we're finding is, we're getting people in our town who feel that they're being harassed." 

The town only has one bylaw officer to serve the population of around 35,000, and that person is wasting a lot of time on "neighbourly disputes," she said.

The fire department is also getting complaints about people having legal outdoor fires, she added.

Complaints about backyard fires

LaSalle Fire Chief Ed Thiessen confirmed to CBC that the department gets occasional calls about outdoor fires, though said id it doesn't happen frequently enough to cause a problem for the service. 

"As long as they're … the proper distance away from structures and that they're burning clean materials … they are allowed," he said.

Meloche said other complaints she's heard about involve loud dogs and loud cars.

Her goal with the motion, she said, is to find a way to continue treating all complaints seriously, while shutting down repeated complaints on matters that have already been investigated — and potentially even fining residents whose repeated, unfounded complaints cost the town money.

The motion passed unanimously. 

Coun. Jeff Renaud was the only person to speak to it during Tuesday night's meeting.

"One thing I learned in the last 11 years with being on council is I have very good neighbours," he said.  

"And there's probably twice as many people out there that don't have very good neighbours, and I see a lot of resources being wanted on frivolous complaints."