At the September 14 joint committee meeting, on the agenda was a communication item for direction. It was a request that council consider a bylaw to regulate clothes lines.
Hmmm…
Council received the correspondence for information. The discussion around the table included climate change. The request was classist and distasteful.
In April 2008 then Premier Dalton McGuinty banned the ban on clotheslines in the province. In 2018, when Premier Doug Ford repealed the Green Energy Act, he upheld the pro-clotheslines provision, moving it to the Electricity Act.
Although municipalities in Ontario can’t ban clotheslines out right, they can pass bylaws regulating their use. To some, clotheslines are considered eyesores that lower and endanger property values.
If you read any article or pamphlet on how to save energy at home, one of the top recommendations is to use outdoor line drying for laundry to save money, protect the earth, and even whiten white clothes.
