Business owners and town councillors poured cold water on Morinville’s proposed fireworks laws last week, saying they could snuff out potential sales in town entirely.
Morinville council debated, but did not vote on, second reading for proposed changes to the town’s fire services bylaw Feb. 8.
Morinville does not currently allow anyone but certified pyrotechnicians to store, buy, sell, or launch fireworks within its borders.
The Morinville fire department tabled amendments to the fire services bylaw last month which would let residents sell and store fireworks with a permit and launch them outside of town provided they follow other provincial and federal regulations. Town fire prevention officer Fred Nash clarified that residents could also get permits to launch small quantities of low-risk fireworks in town under certain circumstances, citing the case of a parent giving a child a sparkler as one example.
The amendments, if approved, would restrict the sale and use of fireworks to 10 days prior to and on specific holidays (Victoria Day, the Sunday after Canada Day, Heritage Day, Labour Day, New Year’s Day, and other dates specified by council), and limit sales and storage to low-hazard consumer fireworks such as sparklers. Nash told council these 10-day periods correspond to peak sales periods for fireworks in any given year.
Too restrictive?
In his written and verbal submission to council, Morinville and District Chamber of Commerce chair Shaun Thompson said the restrictions proposed by the amendments could force vendors to store fireworks for many months should they be unable to sell all of their stock during one of the 10-day periods. He called for either additional sales periods or year-round sales of fireworks, as is allowed in Sturgeon County.
Council should also scrap the requirement to have a permit to buy fireworks, said Perry Logan, executive director of the Canadian National Fireworks Association, in a letter to council.
“If someone is passing through Morinville and wants to purchase fireworks to take back to their community, why would they be required to wait for the fire chief to issue a permit for a community they have no jurisdiction in?” he asked.
Nash said the proposed fireworks permits would be available online but could take several days to be approved. While the permits would not cover fireworks bought outside of town, they would help the department track where any fireworks bought in Morinville end up.
Boddez said these permits are designed to encourage people to plan ahead and discourage impulse buying of fireworks.
“Selling [fireworks] is not an issue,” he said, but fireworks are also explosive devices.
“We’re just trying to minimize that risk.”
Coun. Ray White said these proposed rules are too onerous and will encourage people to buy their fireworks outside of Morinville.
“There’s no way somebody’s going to go down to the fire department, get a permit, and go through your four-stage process [to buy fireworks] when I can pick up the phone and have them delivered to my door,” he said, referring to online purchases.
“You’re trying to kill a mosquito with a sledgehammer.”
Council referred the amendments to its Feb. 15 committee of the whole meeting for more discussion.
