If your son or daughter deliberately damaged public property how would you feel about being forced to cover the repair costs?
If one local politician has his way, parents will pay the price for their children's vandalism and graffiti.
The push is being led by Delta councilor Scott Hamilton. He's had enough of vandals, who cost the municipality an estimated $100,000 dollars a year.
In June, someone set fire to an artificial turf field causing $10,000 dollars in damage.
"I think it's just about time to send a message that we don't want to tolerate it anymore," he says.
He wants a policy that would allow Delta to go after the parents of young vandals, specifically the ones he considers chronic offenders.
"I ask the question, where are the parents?" asks Hamilton.
In Langford, municipal officials are already suing vandals and their families to recover costs of clean-up and repair.
And they have the law on their side.
B.C. is one of three provinces in Canada that has a parental responsibility act.
"What that statue does is it allows people to sue the parents of children that have intentionally committed an act of vandalism or some other act of wrongdoing," says David MacAlister, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University.
But not everyone thinks holding parents accountable for their teenage vandals is such a good idea.
In fact, some critics say it won't work as a deterrent at all.
"What the research shows is that these things may lead to parents becoming very authoritarian with their children and that leads to rebellion and more delinquency and more deviance," says Irwin Cohen, a criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley.
But Hamilton believes taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for vandals anymore.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
