Vandals use a legal, acid-based etching cream to eat away part of the glass. (CBC)A downtown Ottawa business owner fears he and other merchants will have to spend hundreds of dollars a year replacing the windows of their stores because of vandals who etch their graffiti into the glass.

A city bylaw requires business owners to remove graffiti at their own expense in response to complaints. If it isn't done within a few weeks, the city cleans up the graffiti and bills the owner.

Jim Krgakos, owner of Kars Confectionery on Kent Street, said graffiti painted on walls is usually just an inconvenience, as it's fairly cheap to remove. But some new graffiti etched onto the window of his store could pose a much more costly problem.

The letters have been written using acid that eats away part of the glass, and the company hired to wash Krgakos's windows has tried every means possible to remove them, he said.

"They say there is no way — they can't even buff it out."

The only solution, he added, is to replace the window, which would cost $250. Had it hit the front window of the store, that would have cost $400 to replace.

"If this continues … some people just won't be able to afford this cost all the time," he said.

Graffiti applied using acid-based etching creams, which can be purchased legally at most craft stores, has also been an expensive problem for other businesses.

New glass to cost OC Transpo $300,000

Jim Krgakos said he thinks the victims of graffiti are being penalized more than the perpetrators. (CBC)The Beer Store on Somerset Street recently paid $600 to replace its window. And OC Transpo, the city's own public transit company, expects to spend $300,000 this year replacing glass on its buses and bus stops.

The City of Ottawa said it deals with etched graffiti on a case-by-case basis and the property owner might not be required to cover the full cost of replacing the glass.

Ottawa police Insp. Al Burns said etched graffiti is less prevalent than painted graffiti, but both have been around for a century or more.

Krgakos said he feels the city puts too much emphasis on making property owners clean up graffiti and not enough on catching the vandals who damage property with it, but Burns disagreed.

He said police laid more than 20 charges this summer against suspected graffiti vandals, who are hit with $610 fines under the city's graffiti bylaw. In some cases, he added, police can also lay charges under the Criminal Code of Canada.