“Welcome to Toronto. We see that you’re parked illegally, and respectfully request that you try to follow our parking rules during the rest of your visit.”
That’s the type of notice the city is considering placing on illegally parked cars with out-of-province plates, rather than continue to issue tickets that are unlikely to be paid.
The city received payment on only 16 per cent of the 113,781 tickets issued to visiting vehicles last year, says a staff report tabled yesterday to the government management committee. Councillors asked staff to study the idea of issuing notices rather than tickets in such cases and report back in November.
If payment doesn’t come voluntarily, the city has virtually no option for enforcing it, the committee was told.
Because the city has been unable to access data held by jurisdictions outside Ontario, it can’t find the name or address of a vehicle’s owner to try to collect the outstanding fine.
“It’s pretty hard to collect, but when you don’t have that information, it’s impossible,” said acting city treasurer Giuliana Carbone.
