City police issue $880 ticket for breaking emergency guidelines

North Bay police have issued their first ticket for breaking the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act...and it's a whopper!

"In the afternoon of April 23rd police responded to a report of a person at a park in North Bay who was not abiding by the requirement restricting the use of the outdoor recreational park," says police spokesman John Schultz. "Police allege that this resulted in the police service's first charge for failing to comply with an order made during a declared emergency. This process involved a police officer issuing a Provincial Offence Notice for this allegation."

The fine is $750 plus additional court costs totalling $880.

For the week of April 12 to April 18 police responded to 91 calls for service that had a Covid-19 component in them.

These calls included requests for information, unfounded calls, and occurrences dealing with actions deemed temporarily banned.

During that time frame, 35 warnings were issued with the main area of education being the use of outdoor recreational facilities, gatherings of greater than five people, and the closure of non-essential businesses.

Police advise that as a result of COVID-19 the government has made a number of temporary designations including;

• Outdoor recreational facilities are closed however open spaces, trails, and walkways in all the parks in North Bay remain open, but people need to respect social distancing. Playgrounds, benches, picnic tables or other equipment cannot be used and are deemed as banned.
• Sports fields and recreation areas are closed
• Gatherings of over five people are banned
• A provincial fire ban is in effect in Ontario
• Designated non-essential businesses are closed