February 20, 2013

Toronto Star

Jack Lakey

Finally, someone on city council is ready to get serious about making sure drivers benefit from the 10-minute grace period for overtime parking.

Councillors Josh Matlow and Michael Thompson say they will bring a motion to city council this week, asking that tickets not be issued until 10 minutes after the paid parking expires.

Thompson, vice-chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, said he’s willing to bring a motion to the next board meeting, asking that that instruction be given to parking enforcement officers.

But the proposal would carry more weight if it came to the board via a motion from city council, which Thompson said he’s prepared to work on with Matlow.

We’ve previously written about the city’s reluctance to inform drivers about a policy that allows them to cancel tickets issued within 10 minutes of the expiry of paid parking , which came into effect last July.

Drivers can take the ticket and pay-and-display dashboard receipt to any one of four parking tag operations offices, or provide the information to the city by email or fax to cancel a ticket.

Ombudsman Fiona Crean recommended that drivers be informed of the cancellation guidelines at parking tag offices, which council approved last fall, and that the rules should also be prominent on toronto.ca, the city’s website .

But even today, it is almost impossible to find information about the guidelines on the city website, which Crean said is contrary to the spirit of her recommendations and council’s will.

It occurred to Matlow that it would be much better if parking officers simply held back on ticketing until 10 minutes after the paid time expires, instead of the five-minute mercy rule they currently observe.

But he noted that parking enforcement officers take their orders from Police Chief Bill Blair, and that council has no authority to force police to extend the no-ticket policy from five to 10 minutes.

So we had a talk with Thompson, who agreed that the police board should ask Blair to instruct its officers to extend the 10-minute break, instead of making drivers go to the trouble of cancelling tickets.

The two councillors said they’ll put their heads together to get a motion approved at this week’s council meeting, and then move it on to the police board.

It would be hard to find a driver who would argue against it, and would cost the city hardly anything in terms of lost revenue.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope it gets done. We’ll let you know.

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