Town of Nipawin passes back alley curfew to help tackle crime.  (File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Doug Lett

Nipawin back alley curfew

Nipawin passes back alley curfew

Nov 21, 2022 | 3:00 PM

The town of Nipawin has passed a back alley curfew bylaw.

Similar to a Prince Albert bylaw, it closes alleys to people between midnight and 6 am.

“It was a difficult decision,” Mayor Rennie Harper said. But she said an alley curfew bylaw was one of the proposals from a town hall meeting on crime earlier this year.

“One of the things that was asked was whether we could enforce a bylaw like Prince Albert did,” Harper said. “The RCMP were looking for our support for something like this to assist with public safety. That’s what we’re looking for.”

A Citizens on Patrol group is being set up in Nipawin, and one of the organizers believes the new law could help.

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“It gives RCMP another reason to question people when they’re walking down the back alley in the middle of the night,” Dalton Clifford, a member of the group, said. “When you’re going from home to work or whatever, fine, no big deal, but they can ask why you’re walking down the alley with a box of tools. It’ll make a difference, pretty sure it will.”

The mayor said crime in the town of 4,500 has increased in recent years.

“It’s difficult for some people; they hesitate to walk down the main street, they want to walk down alleys and so on,” she said.

Harper said the bylaw came into force when it was passed at the Nov. 14 council meeting. But she said the town is going to work on public education before rigidly enforcing it.

“We will have to do the communication part of letting the public know,” she said.

The maximum fine under the bylaw is $10,000, and the minimum is $500. The bylaw also includes a number of exemptions for people who need to be in the alley.

Those exemptions include people using a rear lane next to their home, or a business owner or employee next to the alley.

Employees of utility companies needing access to the alley are also exempt, along with people dealing with an emergency.

There are other exemptions as well.

“This is a temporary restriction, in the same way that Prince Albert’s is,” Harper said. “We’ll have to gather some data to determine whether or not this had any effect, so we’ll probably start to review that data within six months.”

Prince Albert passed its bylaw in 2020.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com