If you thought you saw a lot of municipal election campaign signs during your daily travels, you were right.
But there would have been even more had the Region of Waterloo not stepped in.
During the recent campaign, regional bylaw officers seized over 1,000 signs that didn't comply with the sign bylaw.
"It's not unrealistic ... we've seized more in the past with the previous bylaw." said Angelo Apfelbaum, who's the Manager of Licensing and Enforcement with the Region of Waterloo.
The revised bylaw was put in place in March.
Some of the rules include:
- a candidate can have no more than one sign where two roads intersect
- signs have to be further away from an intersection or roundabout
- they cannot interfere with/or obstruct the visibility of vehicles and/or pedestrians, a roadway, shoulder, median or planting bed
Apfelbaum says it may have appeared there were more signs out there than there were during the municipal vote in 2014, but adds there were more candidates this time around.
There were over 200 candidates at the regional and municipal level.
"We felt that the bylaw, it worked, because we didn't have as many offenders, per se," Apfelbaum told The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS.
He says this is also the first year they didn't return signs to the individual campaigns, they were recycled instead.
"Overall, I think the placement went well. Now we're just dealing with the residual effects of signs being leftover," he added.
The region is looking into issues surrounding the placement of some election signs and has not yet determined if there will be fines as a result.
That fine is $180.
All municipal election campaign signs were to be removed by Friday night.
If you know of any that are still standing, you can contact the region at 519-575-4400.
Listen here to Angelo Apfelbaum on The Mike Farwell Show on 570 NEWS:
