Brampton's 311 line getting more complaints than it can handle

Brampton's bylaw enforcement branch is receiving thousands of complaints a day — way more than it can handle, according to a recent report commissioned by city staff.

The review, dated March 22, into the city's response to 311 complaints done by AtFocus, a consultancy group, shows that while complaints went up more than 22 per cent last year compared to the year before, staffing levels went down 4.5 per cent.

"The situation is critical," the report says.

The complaints relate largely to property standards, licensing, municipal bylaw and parking-related complaints.

The city received nearly 109,000 complaints in 2023, but has 93 bylaw officers, it said in an email to CBC Toronto. Robert Higgs, director of enforcement and bylaw services, says he is worried about the growing gap in enforcement in Brampton that is causing public frustration and low staff morale.

"There's low wellness and morale among staff… this culture needs to be reinvigorated," he said during the presentation of the report at council Wednesday.

Frustrated residents leading to more complaints

With an increasing number of cases going unaddressed, Higgs says more residents are calling to complain or escalating matters to city councillors. That has led to an increase of 380 per cent compared to 2022, or 5,500 more callbacks and escalations.

Higgs says a lack of enforcement is frustrating residents, who call back and "create even more service requests which circles right back to increased workload onto the enforcement branch which was already overwhelmed."

"You can see how the cycle is feeding into itself," he said.

Coun. Martin Medeiros says while he has full confidence in council and staff's efforts to fix the gap in bylaw enforcement, he believes the problem is so big that the city 'will never be able to catch up.' (Talia Ricci/CBC )

One councillor says his office has seen an increase in "angry residents" reaching out about violations of city's property standards in the neighbourhood.

"On a daily basis right now I'm getting between five days [worth] calls. Pictures or a complaint in which we need to call bylaw," Coun. Martin Medeiros said. "People are angry. People have reached the tipping point."

Parking a top issue

The report notes parking complaints alone made up some 75,000 complaints last year — and half of those are not dealt with.

Higgs says that's because parking is a priority three level call for the enforcement branch as it "doesn't generally negatively impact community safety."

"It is clearly not a low priority to the community as it represents 68 per cent of service requests," he said.

According to Brampton's bylaws, street parking is not allowed for more than three hours or between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. There were nearly 50,000 complaints for the violation of those two parking-related rules.

The report made 28 recommendations which include measures including hiring more staff, using more digital tools and amending bylaws. Neither city nor the councillors specified how many of the recommendations will be accepted.

Staff said it will "review each recommendation in the report to assess their impact on the community."

'No quick fix,' says enforcement head

Higgs made one thing clear during the presentation: "there's no quick fix."

He said even if the city adds more staff, there are plenty of inefficiencies in the process, tools, and funding, that the city needs a long-term plan to address the gap in enforcement.

Last month, the city appointed Higgs as the new director along with a new commissioner of enforcement. Higgs says they are working on bringing more "stability" to the enforcement team, among other measures.

He said there are four new committees for various enforcement branches to engage public and look into existing processes and update them.

Meanwhile, a new enforcement working group is working to streamline the enforcement process, Higgs told the council.

Medeiros worries the city will "never be able to catch up" on the backlog

"We need more bylaw officers… We can't complain then there's not enough money to invest in the bylaw officers," he said.

Enforcement staff will look into the recommendations and report back in the coming months.