At its open meeting on March 27, 2017, Ashcroft council gave final reading to Bylaw No. 810, the Village of Ashcroft Repeal Bylaw. Twenty-six bylaws that were still on the books—some going back to 1952, the year the Village was incorporated—were thereby repealed, largely because they are obsolete or no longer relevant.
Among the bylaws repealed were No. 2 (1952), “Elections Bylaw”; No. 4 (1952), “Sanitary Regulations”; No. 9 (1952), “Meat Inspector”; No. 26 (1957), “Milk Regulations Sale”; No. 132 (1968), “Pool Room”; No. 143 (1969), “Authorization of Sunday Sports and Entertainment”; No. 249 (1975), “Shop Regulations”; and No. 373 (1980), “Holiday Shopping Regulations”.
In 2016 Ethan Anderson, then the Ashcroft deputy corporate officer (DCO), began the job of reviewing the vast majority of Ashcroft’s bylaws, and provided a recommendation as to whether they should be repealed, amended, or left active. Current DCO Wayne Robinson is continuing the work.
Chief administrative officer Michelle Allen says that it is not uncommon for obsolete bylaws to remain on the books. Recently the provincial government passed legislation that removed 19 obscure historical acts that contained discriminatory language from the books. The acts dated back as far as 1881.
Allen explains that when Ashcroft was incorporated in 1952, there was far less provincial legislation in place than there is now, meaning that individual municipalities were left to produce their own bylaws to cover matters such as food sales, health and safety, and businesses which are now regulated at the provincial level.
Bylaw No. 4 (“Sanitary Regulations”) stated that “Where water is available in any house, water flushed toilets and sinks shall be installed within six (6) months of either the passing of this by-law, or the water becoming available, thereafter any outside priviers shall be deemed a nuisance within the meaning of this by-law and shall be dealt with accordingly.”
The “Meat Inspector” bylaw stated that “No meat shall be sold within the corporate limits of the village by hawkers, peddlers, or hucksters”, while the “Milk Regulations Sale” bylaw gave the Board of Commissioners of the Village of Ashcroft the ability to appoint a Milk Inspector, who would, at least once in every month, “take for bacteriological tests, samples of pasteurized milk, homogenized milk, and pasteurized cream from every vendor or carrier of pasteurized products.”
The Inspector could also, at any time, “make or cause to be made such sediment, butter fat, chemical, or other tests of milk or cream offered for sale by any vendor or carrier,” and had to keep a written record of the names of all vendors and carriers from whom samples of milk were taken.
The “Pool Room” bylaw stated that “no person deemed unfit” should be granted a pool-room licence, and that no person under the age of 16 be permitted in a pool room. It added that “all window-blinds, shutters, and curtains pertaining to any pool-room shall be kept open, so that an uninterrupted view of the interior of any pool-room may be had at all times,” and that pool-rooms must be closed on Sundays. No pool-room operator could permit “the shaking of dice or any gambling game or any other game or device of chance to be played for money, chips, or devices representing monery.”
The “Sunday Sports and Entertainment” bylaw needed to be put in place so that, under Section 4 of the “Lords Day Act”, it would be lawful for “any person, after half past one in the afternoon of Sunday, to provide for, engage, or be present at any public sport or entertainment at which any fee is charged,”, while the “Holiday Shopping Regulations” bylaw made it possible for all retail businesses not already permitted by exemption to open on a holiday to “sell or offer for sale goods and services and admit the public on any holiday.”
Other bylaws have been identified as needing further investigation. Once this has been done, they will be brought before council with recommendations as to whether they should be repealed, amended, or rewritten.