Prince Edward County are making some adjustments to the system that handles municipal fines.
During Tuesday’s council meeting, council reviewed a report from municipal staff about the current system, and addressed recommendations on how to streamline the system, and improve clarity.
Prince Edward County currently operates an Administrative Monetary Penalty, or AMP, system which is an alternative to provincial courts for handling by-law infractions. Council established the AMP system in 2019 for parking infractions and breaches of the Short Term Accommodation By-Law. Since then, council has expanded the number of by-law infractions that can result in an AMP being issued.
A person who receives an AMP can request review by a screening officer who has the authority to adjust the penalty or cancel it. If they’re not happy with their decision, they can appeal that decision to the county’s hearing officer, who is a third party able to issue a final ruling.
The proposed bylaw changes include introducing specific criteria for the hiring of both screening and hearing officers to ensure impartiality, adjusting the requirements for serving paperwork to ensure notices are not missed, and to allow the cancellation of an AMP without a hearing if the municipality determines that an error was made.
The proposed changes prompted significant debate between councillors, with Councillor Chris Braney speaking against the motion.
“We have a service review that’s being undertaken right now. I really feel that we should not be going and adding more bureaucratic level scenarios until we get the full scope of that report and decisions that have to be made on that,” said Councillor Braney. “I think it’s I think it’s something we should hold off on until that work is done.”
Councillor Hirsch spoke in favour of going ahead with the current changes.
“Additional work needs to be done, but I think it’s important to proceed now with these relatively modest changes,” said Councillor Hirsch. “Because they’re fairness changes, and the complaints we’ve had have been about not being fair. So I think it is time to do this.”
The motion was later passed 8 to 6 on a recorded vote. Councillors Roy Pennell, Brad Nieman, Bill Roberts, David Harrison, Corey Englesdorfer, and Chris Braney were opposed.




