Council passed the community standards bylaw at its May 24 meeting, giving third reading to the statute which has been in the works since 2013.
The bylaw is intended to combine 21 Town of Olds bylaws into a single piece of legislation for residents to access and includes four parts: care of properties, parking and traffic, public behaviours and nuisances, and dogs and cats.
The bylaw takes effect on July 4. Enforcement is a three-step process, focusing on getting voluntary compliance first: education, warning and then enforcement.
For one councillor, there was still one sticking point. Harvey Walsh voted against third reading because he didn't see the warrant for cat licensing.
"We didn't give administration any direction to come back with the research … The majority of residents of Olds, for the past 20 years have retained their cats at home. They don't allow them to go and wander," Walsh said.
"Even though it's a process where we have maybe 80, 90 per cent of it right, it's an omnibus type bylaw. It's not a grade school test where you get 80 or 90 per cent, it's a pass. Just this one part for me makes it a fail. I can't support it."
Chief administrative officer Norm McInnis said the community standards bylaw is intended to change with the town and he expects the issue of cat licensing to come up in the future.
"I think cat licensing and the ability to reunite cats with their owners was really the reason we went down this road in the first place based on what we heard from our community engagement. I think it's still a sound strategy. We'll see what people think about it," McInnis said.
The town is waiving fees for obtaining cat licences for the rest of 2016. By year's end, administration will present council with a report on the uptake, McInnis said.
"Even though it's a process where we have maybe 80, 90 per cent of it right, it's an omnibus type bylaw. It's not a grade school test where you get 80 or 90 per cent, it's a pass. Just this one part for me makes it a fail. I can't support it."COUN. HARVEY WALSH
