Child curfews and milk sales: Saskatoon looks to repeal outdated bylaws

Next week, the City of Saskatoon’s Governance and Priorities Committee meeting will take a deeper look into 10 city bylaws, some of which have been around for nearly a century.

Included on that list is Bylaw No. 2533, which bans children under the age of 15 from being in public places after 10:30 at night without supervision. It dates back to 1937, although it was last amended in 1977.

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Under this bylaw, children out past curfew could be taken to a children’s shelter, with their parents facing fines ranging from $1 to $5 depending on how often they let their child out too late.

Another bylaw under consideration is Bylaw No. 2887, which prevents milk from being sold to private residences before 7 a.m.

That bylaw was first put in place in 1944 and last amended in 1972.

“Certainly nowadays, where the delivery of milk to our homes is unfamiliar, it would be not something that would happen on a regular basis,” said city solicitor, Cindy Yelland.

Then, there’s Bylaw No. 1580, which prohibits you from bathing in the South Saskatchewan River if you’re within city limits.

“We do have bylaws that prohibit swimming in the Saskatchewan River, or addresses swimming in the Saskatchewan River,” Yelland stipulated. “So, bathing is not something that commonly happens in the South Saskatchewan River anymore, and that is why the bylaw is being asked to be repealed.”

All three of those bylaws, as well as the other seven being put forward by city solicitor are “no longer relevant or redundant due to the subsequent enactment of other legislation or polices,” according to the city’s approval report.

“Many of the bylaws go back to the late 1920s and 1930s and they certainly reflect things that were perhaps important to citizens and city officials at the time, but are probably no longer relevant in today’s Saskatoon,” Yelland explaind, adding that the archaic bylaws offer an “interesting look at history.”

For instance, with Bylaw No. 2533 — even though there’s no other similar bylaw that prevents children from going out unsupervised past 10:30 p.m. — the report outlined that the fine amounts aren’t enough to make people comply.

In addition, “there are concerns that this type of bylaw may be unconstitutional or discriminatory,” according to the report.

None of the 10 bylaws recommended for repeal were actively being enforced. Yelland estimated the city has around 150 bylaws in total.

In 2019, the city completed a major review of the bylaws to include gender-inclusive language. Yelland said a number of bylaws were repealed then, too. She said the ones being repealed now likely were missed over the years due to record-keeping.

One prohibits “blasting by means of gunpowder, dynamite and other explosives,” and Yelland speculated this bylaw was probably put in place to regulate construction work.

“Now, of course, there (are) different regulations in place that deal with the use of explosives for demolitions, but this reflects what was in place in 1928,” Yelland explained.

Why repeal now?

Although these bylaws are outdated or redundant, they’re being reviewed now because of upcoming amendments to The Cities Act, according to Yelland.

That provincial legislation gives cities in Saskatchewan the power to operate. It’ll require all of Saskatoon’s bylaws to be published online, which triggered a review.

There’s no record of any of these bylaws — with the exception of one — being repealed yet. That singular exception is due to an incorrect notation in archival records, which listed it as being “repealed” by a new bylaw when it was supposed to read “amended,” according to the city’s report.

“Most of the city’s bylaws are already posted to our website,” Yelland explained, “so this won’t be a big change for us, but we just wanted to make sure that we hadn’t missed anything. So we worked with the city archivist to literally go into the history vaults and make sure that there (were) no historical bylaws that were still out there that had never been repealed.”

Almost none of these bylaws are posted on Saskatoon’s bylaws web page.

The city solicitor is recommending 10 bylaws be repealed, and if the Governance and Priorities Committee approves the report, it’ll then go before City Council to determine whether the bylaws stay or go.

“Cities are all ever evolving, and what’s important to our citizens is ever evolving,” Yelland reflected. “It was interesting to look back on these bylaws for me and see what was important in those years to citizens and city officials. And certainly, you know, I think they’re an interesting reflection of history at the time.”