The Star is reporting today that city council is looking to start enforcing a ban on loudspeakers, music, and other public noise coming from Toronto businesses.

In an effort to deal with complaints about the noise, council is proposing to hire four full-time officers to monitor the streets and issue fines where they deem appropriate. Cash grab? Hardly, considering the whole plan (including administrative costs) could cost an estimated $340,000 a year.

The way I see it, trying to enforce rules at night seems a worthwhile cause, but a daytime crackdown is just another way to throw away piles of cash this city NEEDS.

This is Toronto. It's noisy. Get used to it.

Having a special task force of sorts put in place is just overdoing it. If there's a legitimate complaint, send the police (already in the area) who can then warn or issue a fine.

Besides, as the Star touches on, a fine may hurt a small shop playing music, but what about big stores like Sears? They'll just swallow the cost and play their crap all the live long day.

Shouting or loudspeaker annoucements could also be fined. Imagine us, a year from now, banding together to defend the Active Surplus guy.

Find something else to fix. I'm sure blogTO readers can come up with a long list of suggestions.