Agostino pushes for tougher rules to curb copper theft in Windsor

Street Help in Windsor wants the city to focus on improving housing, rather than installing signs to discourage panhandling.

A call for tougher rules to crack down on copper theft.

Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino has called upon city administration to explore new measures following last month’s damage to the lights at Malden Park hill.

He also pointed out that Bell Canada now reportedly considers Windsor a hotspot for telecom tampering.

Agostino asked administration to study a Brantford-style bylaw that bans cash payments at scrap yards, so every sale is traceable.

“There’s no more getting cash at scrap yards,” he said.

“If you bring something in to get it scrapped, you’re going to have to have a bank account to get an e-transfer or be able to cash a cheque.”

Agostino wanted the city to explore a permit and ID system for anyone selling precious metals and require scrap yards to report any high-risk metal sales.

“Starting by reporting to police anytime anything comes in,” he said.

“I know we already do some of these things, but we have to get more aggressive because as we see copper theft is getting more and more and more damaging to this community.”

Agostino said copper thefts continue cause thousands of dollars in losses for businesses.

“There is no silver bullet solution to this, and I don’t operate on silver bullet solutions because I know they don’t exist, but, everything we can do to make things better, to make it hard for someone to steal copper, is something that I want to push forward, and I want to push it forward quickly,” he said.

Agostino also wanted the city to join a province-wide push for a consistent Ontario scrap-metal law to stop stolen goods from simply being sold in another city.

Administration will bring back its findings at a later date.