The following article appeared in the June 16 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
Rob Davis doesn’t believe women should be excluded from any activities open to men.
Even if it’s peeing into a trough at one of the city’s busiest intersections.
“If women go in there and think they can use it then God bless ’em,” Guelph’s police chief said last night during a debate about whether the city should experiment with open-air urinals.
Councillor Gloria Kovach asked if the city had given any thought to how they would respond if a woman used the urinals, which had been touted as a place for men to empty their bladders.
Operations director Derek McCaughan said he had not thought about it, but noted the urinals will be posted for men only.
That got Davis on his feet.
The chief said there had not been a discussion about restricting use of the urinals to men.
“I don’t see the women issue as an issue at all,” Davis said.
The committee approved a pilot project which will — if approved by council next Monday — see the urinals installed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights this summer in an effort to curb urinating on public and private property. The urinals will be removed each morning, cleaned and sanitized and then brought back the following afternoon.
Staff estimate the cost of the pilot project will be $700 to $1,200 per week, to be funded from the operations department’s budget.
McCaughan said the idea of the pilot is simply to see how well the urinals are used.
“We will literally measure the quantities emptied,” he said, adding it should also become apparent to operations staff — who clean the downtown each morning after the bar rush — how much urine is being redirected away from storefronts and sidewalks and into the new facilities, which could be in place by early July.
Tom Dowd, who owns two businesses downtown and also lives in the core, said he frequently sees young people urinating on the street.
While he conceded the urinals should help, there is a bigger issue “when youth feel it is OK to whip it out on the street corner and not even care who’s around,” Dowd said.
He noted police must continue to ticket those who violate the city’s anti-fouling bylaw, which prohibits spitting, urinating or defecating on sidewalks.
“If we respond in a way that simply allows the behaviour . . . where does it end?” Dowd asked.
The committee heard the urinals are proposed to be part of a three-phase effort to curb urinating on public and private property, including a poster campaign and stepped-up enforcement.
Guelph Police Sgt. Doug Pflug noted yesterday officers have issued 131 $240 tickets under the anti-fouling bylaw in the past 12 months.
But Davis warned the committee tickets are not enough.
“You can ticket someone a hundred times, but when you gotta go, you gotta go,” the chief said, noting the police service supports the urinals pilot project.