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Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark says he is “discouraged” by the tone of the debate over restrictions on backyard fires, but he does not think the anger represents Saskatoon.

Earlier this week, Coun. Bev Dubois revealed she received death threats in December after council voted 6-5 to introduce a 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. window for firepit use. Saskatoon police investigated the incident, but determined it did not meet the threshold of criminal behaviour.

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Clark said council tried to strike a balance to accommodate people who would like a ban on backyard fires due to the harmful effects of smoke. He said city hall has been trying to address the issue since he joined council in 2006.

“I’ll be honest, I got pretty discouraged in December when the vote came down about the time limits on firepits and the anger really started to brew up online,” Clark said in an interview on Thursday.

“And then there were some of these comments that came toward councillors that were quite threatening and, towards me, there was a lot of anger as well.”