VANCOUVER -- Mounties in Burnaby dealt with 40 complaints about people violating COVID-19 rules during the month of March, issuing six tickets.
Burnaby RCMP provided a summary of the work its COVID Compliance Enforcement Team did last month in a news release Thursday.
The first of the six tickets was issued at a party near the intersection of Kingsway and Gilley Avenue on March 14, according to police. Officers were sent there to respond to a complaint about a party in a home. Inside, they found eight people, only three of whom lived in the residence, police said. They gave the homeowner a $2,300 ticket for violating the provincial health order banning indoor gatherings.
The following day, police responded to another party, this one near the intersection of Frederick Avenue and Imperial Street. Only one of the seven people inside was a resident of the home, police said. That person was issued a $2,300 ticket.
The same day, officers also issued a $230 ticket to a man who allegedly refused to wear a mask inside a business on Hastings Street near Willingdon Avenue.
Police ticketed two more party hosts on March 20. One party was on the same block of Kingsway as the March 14 incident, while the other was in the 9300 block of Salish Court. Both hosts were fined $2,300 for the gatherings.
Finally, on March 22, Mounties issued a $230 ticket to a man refusing to wear a mask at a business near Metrotown.
The six tickets and 40 complaints are in addition to the compliance team's regular patrols at Burnaby businesses, police said.
As of March 26, police across the province had written a total of 1,570 tickets to violators of B.C.'s provincial health orders, as well as 128 tickets for violations of the federal Quarantine Act.
Relatively few of the fines issued in B.C. have actually been paid, however.
As of March 20, just 11.6 per cent of COVID-19-related fines had been paid, according to ICBC. More than 37 per cent of tickets were being contested in court.
