Okotoks Approves New Open Burning Bylaw

The Town of Okotoks has approved of its new open burning bylaw within the Town limits.

Okotoks Fire Services will now have the authorization to implement new types of burning as Okotoks continues to grow.

Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says the changes were desperately needed.

"It was there since 1996, so we're basically just updating it to be the same format as of our bylaws of today," he says. "Aligning with other communities that they're dealing with in open burning, one of the things was adding a number of definitions just to make it clear for individuals reading the bylaw."

Thevenot says with the new bylaw they can also expand into the new boundaries created by the annexation between the Town and M.D. of Foothills.

"We also took a step forward to do a complete fire ban within our municipality but also a partial fire ban and that's anticipating any growth. If our community changes size or type like if it's urban or rural setting or maybe one or the other we could then implement complete or partial bans."

Some of the definitions include contained fire, fire pit and recreational fire.

With the new burning bylaw Thevenot can implement a fire ban at anytime under any conditions. See the list of terms for the bylaw below courtesy of the Town of Okotoks.