NIPAWIN — The Town of Nipawin has rejected a first reading at raising the curfew bylaw that dictates what age a person is allowed in a public place during specific times without guardianship.
Currently the bylaw dictates that a child under the age of 15 years found in a public place between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., may be taken by a peace officer to the child's home and turned over to a parent, a guardian or a responsible adult or may be delivered to an "officer" as defined under The Child and Family Services Act.
Under the new bylaw amendment that was rejected, the age was changed to “15 years or younger”, effectively raising enforcement age by one year.
Barry Elliott, Nipawin’s administrator said the bylaw will be going back to committee for further discussion and taking into consideration the comments that were made at council on Sept. 23.
One councillor who expressed concern during the meeting was Jan Boughen.
“She expressed from her perspective, curfew bylaws generally and how they impact relations with youth and that sort of thing because it is all geared towards age groups,” Elliott said. “Council decided in light of that, they denied to give it first reading so the current curfew bylaw will still be in effect with the language that’s already existing.”
The bylaw’s reason for appearing before council was part of the standard annual review of current bylaws.
“It will come back to the table to see if we can address the concerns or whether in fact there truly is a need for curfew bylaw in Nipawin. So further discussions will restart at a committee level.”
