A long-time city councillor is calling on the city to implement a 10 minute grace period for parking tickets.
Ward 24 Coun. David Shiner has tabled a motion that would revise the city’s parking enforcement bylaw and implement the grace period for anyone with a valid pay-and-display receipt that expired no more than 10 minutes before an enforcement officer’s arrival.
The motion will be debated by the government management committee on Feb. 24
“Parking tickets should not be used as a tax grab,” Shiner said in a press release. “It’s not fair to get a ticket just because you are a few minutes late or your watch is different from the parking machine.”
Parking enforcement officers currently have the option of allowing for a grace period, but Shiner said that they rarely do so.
According to Shiner’s motion, entrenching the grace period in the city’s bylaw would have cut the number of tickets issued in 2013 by about 60,000.That number represents about 2.3 per cent of the city's parking ticket revenue or about $1.8 million.
