Remember that winter parking ban early this year? Bylaw officers issued 2,800 tickets
Longer parking ban in early 2022 resulted in fewer than 1,100 parking violations
Edmonton bylaw enforcement officers ticketed more than twice as many vehicles during a winter parking ban early this year compared to a similar period in 2022, a report shows.
During a two-week residential parking ban from Jan. 24 to Feb. 8, bylaw officers issued 2,875 tickets, but 144 of them were soon cancelled after the city discovered an error.
In 2022, bylaw officers gave out 1,081 tickets during a nearly month-long parking ban Jan. 10 to Feb. 4.
It's more than a 150 per cent increase in tickets, year over year.
Coun. Erin Rutherford said she received complaints from constituents in northwest Ward Anirniq in January.
"There's a lot of questions and concerns about — not necessarily that we should or shouldn't be doing parking enforcement, but the 'how' it's done," Rutherford told CBC News last week.
Rutherford got clusters of complaints from residents in certain neighbourhoods like Inglewood, Athlone, Woodcroft and Kensington, so she asked administration what was happening.
"They responded with several emails to different inquiries from my office saying that they determine priority areas based on compliance," she said. "And [they] didn't elaborate on that."
Rutherford asked administration to compile the information in a report, which was released Thursday. The report is going to council's community and public services committee on June 19.
The report explains that 144 ticket cancellations were due primarily to a "notification date error" which resulted after crews starting work in the northwest and central districts "prior to residents being notified."
Most of the tickets were issued in neighbourhoods outside the central part of the city, the report shows.
The breakdown by district is as follows (the numbers include the 144 tickets that were later cancelled):
- 749 in the northwest.
- 657 in the northeast.
- 702 in the southeast.
- 486 in the southwest.
- 117 in central Edmonton.
- 164 listed as "citywide".
"Citywide" captures tickets issued by officers who were not deployed to a specific area.
"At this time the enforcement database does not track tickets or violations by location," the report says.
Officers are assigned to a certain district and have planned routes at the beginning of each shift, the city said.
"Throughout the day, city operations will direct enforcement officers to areas that are showing low compliance that is limiting the ability of snow and ice control crews to clear roadways."
City dedicates bylaw officers
The city imposes winter parking bans to allow snow-clearing crews to do their work more efficiently and effectively, ensuring roads are cleared curb to curb.
"This enables quicker, more efficient delivery of clear roads that are easier and safer to navigate," the city says in the report.
In previous years, the city contracted out the enforcement efforts.
This year, the city dedicated 15 bylaw officers to ensure residents were moving their vehicles off streets, Chantel Perizzolo with the city's complaints and investigations department said in an email.
"This provided additional program oversight and flexibility to help increase enforcement efforts and compliance," Perizzolo wrote.
During the winter parking ban in 2022, bylaw officers also gave 1,037 warnings, along with the 1,081 tickets.
Coun. Jo-Anne Wright said that's when she heard complaints from residents in southeast Ward Sspomitapi.
"The year before was, 'Why aren't you ticketing?'" she said.
Wright acknowledged the need for the city to improve snow and ice clearing, adding that she's not opposed to bylaw officers using tickets to get people to comply.
"What's the sense of having bylaws if we aren't going to enforce them?" she told CBC News last week.
$250 too steep, especially if you get 2
Last fall, council agreed the city should increase the fine to $250 from the previous $100. At $250 each, the 2,761 tickets issued during the January-February ban would total more than $690,000.
Rutherford said one household in her ward got two tickets during the two-week parking ban this year.
"I have to ask the question, at what point does it become punitive?" she said.
She added a certain amount allows the city emphasize the importance of residents moving their cars off streets during a ban.
"But I don't know, $500 for one household is pretty substantive for a lot of the households that I represent," she said.
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