Surrey council directed city staff on Monday to ask the provincial government to bring forward legislation to sa国际传媒渃ombatsa国际传媒� catalytic converter theft throughout B.C.

Mayor Brenda Locke brought the motion forward on Sept. 11 and council voted in support of it on Oct. 16.

The mayor noted there is sa国际传媒渃urrently an absence of robust province-wide regulations to address the problemsa国际传媒� and called for a sa国际传媒渓egislative frameworksa国际传媒� to deal with it.

In April council tweaked the citysa国际传媒檚 Scrap Metal Dealer Regulation Bylaw, Business License Bylaw and Surrey Municipal Ticket Information Utilization Bylaw and Surrey Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw in an effort to curb local thefts. Among actions taken were to raise the maximum fines under the scrap metal bylaw to $50,000 from $10,000.

Surreysa国际传媒檚 plan was conceived in January, when catalytic converter theft was significantly on the rise and made up almost 45 per cent of thefts from autos in this city.

Coun. Doug Elford told council he sa国际传媒減ersonally chased a guy down the street stealing a catalytic convertersa国际传媒� from his neighbour. sa国际传媒淚t can be done easily on bikes, very quick and very painful to the victims so I fully support this motion, but knowing how the Province works it may sort of drag this out and Isa国际传媒檓 wondering if we have done something or we can do something within our own bylaws to assist, just expedite things.sa国际传媒�

Acting city manager Rob Costanzo replied that city bylaws were amended earlier in the year to sa国际传媒渁ddress the situation.

sa国际传媒淭he issue beyond our municipal borders would require the municipalities to enact similar bylaws which could be very difficult given the vast number of municipalities beyond Surrey,sa国际传媒� Costanzo said. sa国际传媒淪o the concern is you can steal a catalytic converter in Surrey and sell it in Langley, for example, so the purpose of this motion would be for the Province to enact its own legislation to ensure itsa国际传媒檚 aligned with our bylaw that would allow us to more readily move forward and ensure that we can prevent this sort of issue from arising across B.C., not just solely in Surrey.sa国际传媒�

Coun. Linda Annis said shesa国际传媒檚 hearing from sa国际传媒渟everal reputable recyclerssa国际传媒� who are sa国际传媒渞unning into difficultiessa国际传媒� with Surreysa国际传媒檚 bylaw as currently written sa国际传媒渂ecause theysa国际传媒檙e getting massive truckloads of scrap that may have a catalytic converter or two in the mix and theysa国际传媒檙e losing a lot of business because those trucks are being re-diverted to other jurisdictions.

sa国际传媒淚 know theresa国际传媒檚 several major recyclers here in Surrey that are quite concerned about that so the sooner we can encourage the provincial government to get this fixed the better it would be.sa国际传媒�