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THUNDER BAY — The City of Thunder Bay will consider tweaking the new bylaw that manages the size and placement of election candidates' campaign signs.
The recent election was the first time that candidates were required to follow regulations aimed at reducing "sign pollution" around the city.
Doug Vincent, the city's manager of licensing and enforcement, said there was generally a high level of compliance with the bylaw.
"People tried very hard to follow the rules. It's certainly a change from how election signs were managed in the past. Our office was kind of prompting people when they were not quite following those things," Vincent said in an interview Tuesday.
During the campaign, bylaw enforcement staff focused on educating candidates about violations rather than threatening the fines that are prescribed in the bylaw.
Post-election, the new regulations require candidates to remove all their campaign signs within 72 hours.
"There were a few stragglers," Vincent said. "Our staff went out [Monday] and collected about 10. We'll be disposing of those signs if candidates don't come in and look for them. We'll let them know."
He noted that in fairness to the candidates, signs may have been relocated at some point before the election by people not connected to the campaign, without the knowledge or permission of the candidate.
A couple of issues with the bylaw which may result in changes came to light during the campaign. One concern arose from uncertainty over the maximum allowable size of campaign signs.
"If you think of a real estate sign, for example, it has a length and a width, and then there's how high you can put that off the ground," Vincent said. "What we did was give a width, and how high it could go off the ground, and people interpreted that to mean anything from two metres below right to the ground was fine as long as long as it wasn't wider than 1.2 metres."
"That generated some complaints until people understood that, technically, it was legal the way the bylaw was written. We're looking at bringing that back for consideration for an amendment."
Another issue that arose during the campaign involved commercial advertising.
The bylaw prohibits posting campaign signs on public property, but doesn't account for the fact that the city has a contract with an advertising agency to sell ad space on bus shelters and on transit buses.
"We did allow them to continue because it is a lawful avenue. We were really trying to prevent them on vacant city land and public structures, things like that. So that will get clarified," Vincent said.
He said these and any other concerns that come to light as the city collects feedback on the bylaw could be handled with minor amendments before the 2026 election.
"I met with the [city] clerk yesterday. The election team met just to discuss whatever concerns there were. The clerk's office will be deciding how to proceed," he said. "I think they will be reaching out to all the candidates in the form of a questionnaire. But that will be decided by the clerk's office"
