Castlegar is poised to start fining property owners prone to false alarms.
A new bylaw was introduced this week at city council that would allow two false security alarms within a one-year stretch, but the third one could come with a fine of $200. A fourth one could cost $300 and each subsequent one could be $400. There would also be a $100 fine if the owner doesn’t attend to deal with a false alarm within 15 minutes of being asked to do so by the RCMP or security company.
A city staff report said false alarms “divert resources from higher-priority calls and can impact overall service efficiency. Reducing false alarms can help ensure more effective use of policing resources and improve response capacity for legitimate incidents.”
Sgt. Monty Taylor told council that RCMP responded to 144 false alarms in Castlegar in 2024 and 170 in 2025.
“We don’t mind going to these,” he said. “Obviously, it’s part of our job. And if there’s a crime happening, we definitely want to prevent it and solve it. But there is quite a volume.”
Taylor said some addresses are generating 14 to 17 calls per year.
“I think it’s important to relate to these business owners the importance of finding out why these alarms are false, as opposed to just us going there 17 times and saying, ‘Can you fix the issue?'”
Taylor said most businesses are very co-operative and try to solve the problem, but he feels the bylaw will provide an extra incentive. He added that businesses and homeowners will need to be made aware of the possibility of the fines before the city starts issuing tickets.
Councillor Brian Bogle, a retired Safeway manager, said he liked the way the bylaw is structured.
“False alarms are annoying for the RCMP, and they’re also really annoying for the people that have to get up in the middle of the night,” he said. “So it really will be an incentive to the business to make sure that their systems are working properly.”
The bylaw is expected to be adopted on June 1. It replaces a previous bylaw from 1996.
