By Tyler Marr

Proposed city managed impound rolls through council

Sep 26, 2017 | 8:44 AM

The City of Prince Albert could soon be in the impound game and would fence in a healthy new source of revenue because of it.

Presented at Monday’s city council meeting was a recommendation to create a city managed impound lot for vehicles seized by the city and Prince Albert Police Service. 

Currently, officers use a private contractor to tow and house seized vehicles at a lot south of the city.

The city impounds nearly 1,200 vehicles per year through bylaw and PAPS enforcement, with half coming in under the SGI impound program. Using these numbers, administration estimates they could generate anywhere between $375,000 to $500,000 per year.

“This is a big win-win,” Coun. Dennis Nowoselsky said. 

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While formulating the new plan, the city also found their current daily lockup rate of $10 is below the status-quo and proposed increasing it to $25 a day, more in line with what cities like Saskatoon charge. This is still well below the current contractor fee of $40 a day.

With an impound lot already at the airport, only minimal costs for maintenance, a small building and security expenditures like cameras would be required to get up and running. Existing staff would be used to manage the program. 

Though Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp was all for locking down a new revenue stream, she worried about upping the daily impound rate. She made note those who tend to get their cars impounded are not of the highest socioeconomic status and did not want to hurt them more.

Coun. Nowoselsky highlighted how the new price will still be lower than what is currently charged, saying if you “get your car out right away, you are still going to get it out cheaper than the present system.”

“So this is still a win-win for them and the city makes a lot of extra money,” he added.

There is also little risk in the program, according to city staff, who said if the vehicle owner fails to pay for the impound, SGI would reimburse the city. Any unclaimed vehicles can also be sold and collected upon.

Though the proposal still requires formal approval at a later meeting and the city needs to apply to SGI to become an authorized Garage Keeper, if passed, the program would be effective as of Jan. 1, 2018.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr