What Township staff told ratepayers the new penalty system would and wouldn't touch — and what's actually in Schedule A today. Each fact below is traced to the by-law text or the Township's own website, dated.
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On April 20, 2026 — three weeks before Council passed the AMPS by-law — the Township posted its own "Quick Guide for Residents" on Facebook. It told residents AMPS "commonly applies to" five things: parking violations, clean yards, animal control, noise complaints, and fire code violations. It described the appeal process as two steps ending with a Hearing Officer whose ruling is "final and binding," and promised penalties "must be reasonable and not punitive." Everything below is what the by-law actually contains.
Source: Township of Carling Facebook post, April 20, 2026, "Ontario Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS): A Quick Guide for Residents," pp. 1–2.
August 12, 2025. Resolution 25-073, moved by Councillor Kelly, seconded by Councillor Wing, directing staff to draft an AMPS by-law, a property standards by-law, and an updated Clean Yards by-law. Carried. Councillor Kelly is now running for Mayor.
Source: Township of Carling Council Minutes, August 12, 2025, p.8, Resolution 25-073.
May 12, 2026. By-law 2026-14, "Being a by-law to implement an Administrative Monetary Penalty System," moved by Councillor Doubrough, seconded by Councillor Cook. Carried.
Source: Township of Carling Council Minutes, May 12, 2026, p.8, By-law 2026-14.
Placeholder broom — swap in the real photo once it's shot.
Under Provincial Offences Court, the Township has to prove you broke a by-law. Under AMPS, the Hearing Officer's decision is final, and the by-law states — in three separate sections — that the penalty "shall not be subject to any further review, including a review by any Court." Not once. Three times, written into the same document.
Source: Township of Carling AMPS By-law 2026-14, passed May 12, 2026, ss. 4.3(c), 4.10(c), 5.3(c).
In court, the Township has to prove you did it. Under AMPS, it's reversed: the by-law requires the resident to establish, on a balance of probabilities, that they did not commit the violation. The Township issues the penalty. You disprove it, or you pay it.
Source: Township of Carling AMPS By-law 2026-14, ss. 4.11(b)(i), 5.11(b)(i).
Ratepayers pushed back before AMPS passed — staff's own guide listed Clean Yards as something the system covers, and it was cut before the May 12, 2026 vote. Twenty-eight days later, on June 9, 2026, it went back in through a separate by-law that amends AMPS from inside its own text. No advance notice was given that reconsideration was coming.
Sources: AMPS By-law 2026-14 (May 12, 2026); Clean Yards By-law 2026-25, s.13, signed text obtained July 6, 2026; Township of Carling Council Agenda, August 11, 2026, item 7 By-Laws (1), p.79, moved by Councillor Cook, seconded by Councillor Kelly.
The same April 20, 2026 guide walked residents through a side-by-side "POA vs. AMPS" example. Under Finalization & Payment, it described AMPS as having "limited appeal options (usually judicial review, not a full appeal)" — suggesting a court could still look at it. The by-law Council passed three weeks later says the opposite, in three separate sections: a Hearing Officer's decision "shall not be subject to any further review, including a review by any Court."
Sources: Township of Carling Facebook post, April 20, 2026, "A Quick Guide for Residents," p.5 ("Example of POA vs AMPS – Parking Ticket"); AMPS By-law 2026-14, ss. 4.3(c), 4.10(c), 5.3(c).
Staff's own report to the March 24, 2026 Committee of the Whole said it plainly: "The schedule of fines and short-form wordings are in development and will be included when the By-law is presented to Council for approval." Councillors were asked to endorse handing enforcement in-house — with the Township's own Deputy Clerk as the first-review "Screening Officer" — before anyone knew which infractions would carry a penalty or how much it would cost. The same report notes, without further comment, that "fines paid through AMPS stay with the Municipality."
Source: Township of Carling Committee of the Whole Agenda Package, March 24, 2026, pp. 38–39.
This isn't a worst-case guess. It's the mechanism written into the Clean Yards by-law itself: the Township can perform clean-up work and add the cost — uncapped — to the tax roll. Unpaid for two years, that becomes a Tax Arrears Certificate, a lien with priority over even a mortgage, then a redemption period, then a tax sale by public tender.
Nothing about that sequence requires bad intent to use it. It's simply what the by-law allows, sitting on the books, available to whoever holds the office — this Treasurer or the next one, five years from now. That's the sledgehammer hanging over every ratepayer in this Township, and nobody voted to put it there.
Where a Township employee is referred to, it is by title only, and only where the document itself is the source. The full research file, with the exact quoted passage behind every claim, is available on request.