In earlier blogs I have written about the dangers of predatory shopping carts. Today's Ottawa Citizen on page B4, describes how large the problem is. In just two wards of the City of Ottawa, Beacon Hill-Cyrville and Rideau Vanier, in just ten months city staff picked up an estimated 1300 shopping carts at a cost of just under $50 000. For all twenty-four wards in the city this works out to an overall cost of between $500 000 and $600 000. "City Councillors are again calling for a by-law to curb the problem."
"Now with the numbers to back him up, (Councillor Tim) Tierney won support from his fellow members of the protective services committee Thursday for a by-law to recoup taxpayers money by making retailers and thieves pay for the abandoned carts. .... The pilot shows us we have a problem and its costing us money."
"Tierney said grocery store owners in his ward have introduced electronic wheel locks on their carts. When a cart is taken too far off a property, the wheels automatically lock."
It is significant that the by-law to curb predatory shopping carts was handled by the "protective services committee". The carts, it appears, are more than just a nuisance, but are dangerous too.
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