Halton Hills council discusses ways to combat rampant graffiti
Published January 25, 2023 at 3:52 pm
Is it graffiti or is it art? That’s one of the questions Halton Hills councillors are asking Town staff to answer.
At Monday’s council meeting, Ward 1 councillor Michael Albano and Wards 1 and 2 regional councillor Clark Somerville, put forth a motion asking Town staff to begin consultation with the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce and the Acton and Georgetown BIAs, on solutions to eradicate graffiti.
“I’ve noticed a lot of graffiti, particularly the last couple of years, not only on Town, but also on private property as well as utility boxes and trash cans,” said Albano.
“The BIAs spend considerable amount of time and money on beautification of downtown areas. Defacing properties with graffiti takes away from their hard work and makes the community areas unattractive. Graffiti can be costly to remove and taxpayers money can be better spent.”
Albano said some walls in Acton have been defaced for more than a year.
Ward 3 councillor Ron Norris said a Bell Canada box in his neighbourhood has been defaced for several years and Bell never responded to requests to clean it up. He asked who would pay for the cleanup, taxpayers or the businesses themselves.
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“Is it vandalism or art?” asked Ward 3 councillor Chantal Garneau, who wondered if there was an opportunity to designate space for legal graffiti, as other communities have done.
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