Casual Legal: How Alberta Towns Round Up Night Owls
DISCLAIMER: This article is meant to provide information only and is not intended to provide legal advice. You should seek the advice of legal counsel to address your specific set of circumstances. Although every effort has been made to provide current and accurate information, changes to the law may cause the information in this article to be outdated.
By Hannah A. Schmakeit
Reynolds Mirth Richards Farmer LLP
Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Service Provider
With the days getting shorter and the nights getting longer, the streetlights are not the bedtime cue that they used to be. For kids, the temptation to roam after dark may be strong, but many of Alberta’s municipalities are prepared.
Under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), sections 7 and 8 grant municipalities broad authority to create bylaws for community safety and order. For many municipalities, their method is through setting curfews for certain age groups which prohibit them from being in public spaces unsupervised outside of certain times. For example, the Town of Bruderheim has Curfew Bylaw, Bylaw 46-2016, which prohibits people under 15 years of age being in public places between the hours of 11:00 pm and 6:00 am without parental or guardian supervision. The towns of Millet, Blackfalds, Valleyview, and Taber all have similar curfew bylaws, generally targeting people under the age of 15 or 16 and prohibiting them from being in public spaces for nighttime hours while unsupervised, usually starting around 11:00 pm or midnight and ending around 6:00 am. Some of these bylaws even implement fines on the parents or guardians of the offending party for allowing the child to be in the public space unsupervised.
Often, these curfews only apply to children hanging out in public spaces like parks and streets and not necessarily travelling to or from places or events. For example, children walking home from a soccer game or late-night movie is often excepted from being an offence under these bylaws since they are on their way home. However, the Town of Barrhead did consider in 2018 whether to make a curfew for all ages of bicyclists to attempt to provide the RCMP with another tool to deter and address crime being committed by people fleeing on bicycle. The Town of Barrhead ultimately decided to forego a curfew for bicyclists, so the utility of such a tool has yet to be seen.
Since it is uncommon to have such curfews in Alberta, these curfews are often the subject of criticism and media attention when and if they are proposed, especially because of the difficult balance between community safety and individual freedoms. When preparing the first draft of such bylaws under such scrutiny, it is especially important to ensure that the bylaw is tailored to address specifically the concern raised, does not affect folks it is not intended to affect, and does not restrict further than intended. Also, it is important to ensure the bylaw is unambiguous, and a regular person would be able to understand exactly what the bylaw is doing without multiple possibilities.
To access Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Helpline, Alberta Municipalities members can call toll-free to 1.800.661.7673 or email casuallegal [at] abmunis.ca (casuallegal[at]abmunis[dot]ca) and reach the municipal legal experts at Reynolds Mirth Richards and Farmer LLP. For more information on the Casual Legal Service, please contact riskcontrol [at] abmunis.ca (riskcontrol[at]abmunis[dot]ca), or call 310.MUNI (6864) to speak to Alberta Municipalities Risk Management staff. Any Regular or Associate member of Alberta Municipalities can access the Casual Legal Service.
