Quispamsis has become the latest municipality to look at restricting commercial flyer delivery within the community.
A draft bylaw being considered by council would allow residents to opt-out by placing a “No Flyers” sign on their property.
It also outlines locations where flyers are allowed to be placed, such as in mailboxes, mail slots, or on a doorstep.
That means if the bylaw were to pass as is, distributors would no longer be able to toss flyers into driveways.
“Right now, it’s a pretty efficient delivery system in that they throw the flyers outside the windows of a slow-moving vehicle and they land in the driveway,” town CAO Aaron Kennedy said during Tuesday’s council meeting.
“If you eliminate driveways from distribution, I would suspect that that will simply just eliminate all flyers in Quispamsis.”
Saint John recently enacted its own flyer bylaw while neighbouring Rothesay is in the process of doing the same.
While Saint John still allows for flyers to be tossed in driveways, the proposed bylaw being considered in Rothesay bans that practice.
Coun. Kerrie Luck, who asked staff to look at creating a bylaw, suggested that she would be fine with having flyers tossed in driveways.
“I think that the intention of the bylaw is to give people an opt-out,” Luck said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“That way, if people want to still throw them in the driveway because people want the flyers, then that’s another option.”
Five of seven councillors voted in favour of the first reading of the bylaw, with Emil Olsen and Beth Thompson voting against it.
Kennedy said the town will solicit feedback from residents over the coming weeks before the matter comes back to council.
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