Pending public consultations, property owners could soon be fined if the Moose Jaw Fire Department is called out to false alarms on multiple occasions. The move is part of an updated Fire Bylaw that's before City Council.

Fire Chief Rod Montgomery says false alarms are a real concern because it takes a potential team away from responding to a real fire.

"The first two would be free and then on the third on we would charge a fee," explained Montgomery. "We don't want to generate revenue from this obviously, we want compliance but if there's not some method to deal with these continuous false alarms, then we're just left with continuing to respond and continuing to respond. So, hopefully, this will deter people from not fixing their systems."

A false alarm for a fire could be caused by a number of factors such as a faulty security system, an electrical storm or maybe even a lot of smoke from cooking. The proposed bylaw stipulates that the fine would only be issued if the false alarm is connected to a similar type of issue and would be at the Chief's discretion. Multiple calls to the same location for different false alarms would not result in a fine.

Chief Montgomery says they have one property in Moose Jaw that has eleven false alarms this year alone. A quick review of his report showed there would have been at least 50 fines handed out this year if the policy was already in place.

"False alarms for the Fire Department is huge for them and going to the same place eleven calls, to me, is just unreal," said Councillor Dawn Luhning. "I know you can't not go, you have to go as our fire department but there's got to be some kind of education there and it can't just keep happening."

Montgomery says if it comes down to a malfunctioning system then a property owner need to fix the problem rather than just ignoring it. He hopes a fine will be that incentive. Council has tabled the motion pending further public consultations.