By Thia James

City clearing roads of cars before plows clear snow

Dec 24, 2013 | 3:54 PM

Starting next year, the City of Prince Albert will be ticketing and towing vehicles parked in areas where snow removal will be taking place.

Bylaw officers will now be ticketing and towing vehicles parked on any street where a sign is posted to notify residents about snow removal operations.

The fines will remain the same, but the drivers will now be picking up the cost for towing the vehicles, “which will outdo the fine,” Mayor Greg Dionne said on Monday.

The fine for a parking violation is $10, if paid within 10 days after bylaw issues the ticket.

He added that ticketing and towing comes on the heels of resident demands.

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The city has been plowing around the vehicles that do remain parked in the street, but it’s expensive to send a loader back to plow that small area.

“And it also causes a hazard on the street. Because once that car moves, that ridge is sitting out in the middle of the street, and right out past the parking lane and it becomes a hazard. So we have to go fix it,” Dionne said.

In the past, residents were asked to remove their vehicles from streets where plows would be out grading.

“In 2014, there’ll be no issues. Everybody knows when the signs are out, we’re removing snow [and] to remove their vehicles,” he said.

“And if they don’t, we will be.”
In the final council meeting of 2013, members of council decried the lack of ticketing and towing of vehicles parked at the side of the road for extended periods of time – unmoved. During the Dec. 9 meeting, the mayor pointed to a lack of uniform enforcement to ticketing.

In one instance on a street where snow removal was set to take place, one car out of four on the street was ticketed. Three other snow-covered vehicles were not.

The $10 parking violation fine is not a deterrent, he said at the council meeting. “In the new year, I’ll ask [for] a review of that.”

Bylaw enforcement has been aggressive, but not aggressive enough, Dionne said on Monday.

“And they’ll be getting clear instruction from council and the police commission [Board of Police Commissioners] early in 2014 with the new direction.” 

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames