City of Brantford Council supported a resolution which advocates for local business owners by encouraging the provincial government to create stronger laws and better enforcement surrounding break-ins, theft and vandalism, during the Committee of the While, Planning and Administration meeting on Tuesday, August 12, 2025.
Back in November 2023, Council unanimously voted in favour of further regulating salvage yard licensing requirements, and introducing a bylaw in hopes of cracking down on those trying to sell frequently stolen items like copper or metal to salvage yards, however the item was then deferred to a later date.
The item came back to Council again in March 2024 for further adjustments and to officially enact the bylaw.
Most recently, Ward 4 Councillors, Linda Hunt and Richard Carpenter, hosted a town hall meeting on June 23, 2025, where local businesses were invited to discuss the issue of continued theft and vandalism.
Both the City of Brantford Bylaw and Security department, as well as Brantford Police Services, were present for the town hall, and in the end, local business owners requested that a formal letter be drafted by Council, and sent to both the provincial and federal government, advocating for the municipal bylaw to be transitioned into provincial legislation.
During Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Hunt brought forward a resolution, asking her fellow Councillors to support the letter.
Included in the correspondence will be a request to strengthen the bail system in order to enhance community safety, as well as testimonials from local business owners detailing the financial and operational impact of break-ins, theft and vandalism.
Before getting into discussions, both John Oddi, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Brantford-Brant, as well as Elizabeth Lorenzin, who chairs the chamber’s advocacy committee, had the opportunity to speak in support of the item.
“There isn’t a business owner who doesn’t have a story; not just a ‘hey, this happened to me,’ kind of story, but an often gut-wrenching story where your business life is literally turned upside down,” said Oddi.
Lorenzin went on to say that the true cost of crime for businesses are the costs to repair and replace their damaged property.
“These costs are into the millions of dollars for our local community of small business owners. We are talking about costs that we don’t normally budget for; it’s not a line item on your income statement. You don’t know it’s coming until it’s actually there in front of you,” she said. “…For years, business owners have been spending time, resources and money, to figure out how to deal with vandalism, thefts and break-ins. The time for a provincial strategy is now. Businesses have done their part, their best part. They have put their best foot forward in this situation. We have done it bravely, and we have done it with perseverance, but we cannot continue to do this alone.”
Hunt later said that while Council’s initial bylaw had good intentions, it just isn’t enough.
“The intention of our bylaw was that if they can’t sell it [in Brantford], then they won’t need to steal it. Our intentions were good, however, because it is a municipal bylaw, we do not have any control over what is accepted at scrap metal yards in other municipalities. It’s become very apparent that since we’ve had this bylaw in place, that it has not deterred the break-ins, the thefts and the vandalism that our business community is experiencing,” she said. “I think our business community needs to be supported; I’ve long been a staunch supporter of small businesses in our community, they are the backbone of our economy and economic development is not all about getting the next big business to come to town. Economic development is doing everything that we can as a Council to support our existing business in the community.”
Hunt added that the issue needs to go beyond the municipal level in order for things to change.
“It’s extremely important for us to advocate for the province to make this provincial legislation, but also to be able to talk to our neighbouring communities and have them also embrace this type of legislation and call on the province too,” continued Hunt. “The more municipalities that get behind this, the better it is.”
Carpenter also agreed with his wardmate’s statement, adding that there needs to be a real penalty for those who commit those types of crimes.
“The whole community is tired of people breaking the law and nothing actually happening. …There needs to be a penalty for these things when they happen,” he said. …”This is everybody’s responsibility whether you buy stolen goods from somebody, or whether you see someone stealing something and don’t do anything about it. We all have a responsibility, and I think the province needs to step up with their responsibility as well in making this legislation provincial wide, and provide the resources so that when people are caught breaking the law in our community, that they serve some time.”
Carpenter wasn’t suggesting big time jails or prisons, but rather, something like the old Burtch Correctional Facility, which kept people who committed petty crimes off the streets.
Councillor Brian Van Tilborg also added that he thought there was a direct correlation between when Burtch was closed, and the increase of petty crimes in the community.
“There’s no longer any accountability, there is no risk for anyone in the community because, as it was mentioned and as the delegations agreed, the people who do these things are back on the street in no time,” he said. “Burtch Correctional was a fantastic thing for the community to keep these things in check, to stop criminals from going to the next highest level, and, more importantly, to keep them from being sent back into the very community to commit the same crimes the very next day.”
Hunt later stressed that what they were doing during the meeting was essentially creating a template letter, and that she would like to see every business in Brantford, as well as every other business in other municipalities, get on board and encourage Ontario to bring the issue into provincial legislation.
“We’re talking strength in numbers,” she said. “These elected politicians need to get hundreds, thousands, of these letters in their inboxes. They need to know that the constituents out there are demanding change, and that’s where the advocacy component comes in.”
Councillors then unanimously voted in favour of the resolution, which will return to Council on Tuesday, August 26, to be ratified.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
