Canmore town council is pursuing a bylaw that would ban idling vehicles in the community.
While initially focused on commercial vehicles like trucks and buses, the new traffic and road use bylaw was changed by council to include all vehicles and is now set to go out for public consultation.
“Because we recognize a lot of people in the community will have thoughts about the bylaw, we are putting it out to public engagement,” said Mayor John Borrowman.
The bylaw passed first reading in March, with Borrowman putting forward a failed motion to reverse the wording on idling back to only being applicable to commercial vehicles.
“I moved to put it back to initial wording which was just to reference commercial vehicles,” he said. “So council clearly wants to see a bylaw that prohibits idling at all.
“The discussion was around the reality of enforcing that bylaw and in winter in Canmore there are times when vehicles should be allowed to idle.”
The debate at first reading also surrounded a prohibition against panhandling, which caused concern for Councillor Sean Krausert.
Borrowman said Canmore has never really had a big issue with panhandling and it was removed from the traffic bylaw.
