Halton Police Board makes e-scooter safety a regional priority and asks Oakville to tighten local rules

What the police board decided

At its September 24, 2026 meeting, the Halton Police Board passed a motion designating the safety of electric kick scooters and other powered personal transportation devices, and injury prevention, as a key regional priority. The motion cites a significant increase in these devices among children and youth, and reports from pediatric hospitals and trauma centres of a rise in severe injuries. It notes that provincial rules (Ontario Regulation 389/19) bar riders under 16 and that the devices are banned in Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills and restricted in Burlington, and says police enforcement alone cannot resolve unlawful use.

The board asked the Chief of Police to strengthen a region-wide prevention, awareness and enforcement strategy and to report back with available data on collisions and injuries, complaints and calls for service, warnings and charges, recurring enforcement problems, gaps in municipal and provincial law, and difficulties officers face in telling whether a device is legal.

What it asks of Oakville, the school boards and the province

• Municipalities (Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville): work with police to update by-laws, public signage and policies for municipally owned property; authorize municipal enforcement officers to enforce local rules and refer cases to police; and harmonize definitions and enforcement across Halton.
• The Halton District and Halton Catholic school boards: prohibit students from riding, parking or storing unlawful or age-prohibited devices on school grounds, consider a general e-scooter ban on school property, and tell families the rules while keeping accessibility exemptions.
• Ontario's Minister of Education: set a province-wide standard requiring school boards to restrict age-prohibited devices.

Burlington City Council endorsed the board's motion on September 29. Its own resolution also asks the province to review retail and point-of-sale rules and to collect and publish standardized data on e-bike and e-scooter collisions and injuries, and asks Transport Canada to regulate the safety, batteries and labelling of the devices. Both letters were placed in Oakville Council's October 7 Council Information Package, which is circulated for information; a member of Council can ask to bring an item forward at a future meeting.

Where Oakville stands

According to the Town, e-scooters are not permitted on Oakville's roads, sidewalks, multi-use trails or parks. Oakville has not opted into Ontario's e-scooter pilot program, which runs until November 27, 2029 and is the only route by which a municipality can pass by-laws allowing them, and its traffic by-law does not mention e-scooters. Violations fall under the Highway Traffic Act and are enforced by Halton Regional Police; the Town says its Municipal Enforcement officers cannot stop riders to issue tickets and instead try to educate them.

Separately, the Town's e-Scooter Implementation Review, set out in its Transportation Master Plan, is looking at whether e-scooters could be allowed safely and where, including near schools, parks and transit, and at drafting a by-law. An online survey closed on July 20. When the Town opened the survey in June, it said a staff report with findings and a recommendation on joining the provincial pilot would go to Council later this year.