City cancelling parking tickets issued during storm
City’s decision comes after deluge of complaints, viral social media post
After trying to free multiple other cars in the area, I know for a fact there is nowaythatcar could get out.
Regina’s mayor has apologized for overzealous parking enforcement and declared a 48-hour parking enforcement holiday, partly in response to a viral Facebook post that showed a snow-covered car getting ticketed.
On Tuesday at Regina City Hall, Mayor Michael Fougere announced that all tickets issued from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Wednesday would be cancelled. Until that deadline, parking enforcement officers would not be out on patrol, Fougere said.
“The last couple of days have been really extraordinary,” the mayor explained. “We understand the concerns of residents, those trying to get to work, those trying to go about those daily lives, who in some circumstances find they got a ticket for something that’s beyond their control.”
He said about 117 tickets issued were issued on Monday. Some were serious infractions, like parking in bus lanes. Nonetheless, all will be rescinded, Fougere said, and any residents who have already paid can claim a refund.
The only exception will be for snow routes, temporary no-parking stretches along Victoria Avenue, Winnipeg Street and College Avenue. A parking ban there was set to remain in place until 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Fougere said his office received numerous unhappy calls over tickets issued during the snowstorm, which dumped more than 30 cm of snow on Regina and wreaked havoc with traffic.
“Many of them were stuck,” the mayor said of the vehicles. “And we’re saying we apologize, we’re going to make it better, and the gesture is to cancel those tickets.”
He said a Facebook post put up on Monday by a Regina resident also played a role in the decision. Josh Crosby told the Leader-Post he was walking around the corner of Albert Street and 15th Avenue on Monday, where he noticed a parking enforcement officer leaving a ticket on a windshield.
Crosby said the car looked like it would have had trouble making its way out of the snow.
“After trying to free multiple other cars in the area, I know for a fact there is no way that car could get out,” he said.
He noted that it was the only ticket he saw the officer hand out. But he posted the incident to Facebook, where it had drawn over 9,000 shares as of Tuesday afternoon.
Fougere said parking enforcement officers are just trying to do their job and following policy. He promised a review of that policy to make allowance for “a more flexible response in extraordinary circumstances.”
PLOWING EFFORTS AROUND THE CLOCK
Regina’s snow crews have been working 24 hours a day to clear off the city’s main arteries, and still plan to get started on residential roads on Thursday, as previously announced.
At an earlier news conference Tuesday afternoon, city officials said they were 50 per cent through plowing Category 1 roads, like Victoria Avenue and Albert Street. They are 26 per cent done Category 2 roads like Elphinstone.
“Our goal is to maintain services like transit and garbage collection and ensure the safety of the travelling public,” said executive director of transportation and utilities Karen Gasmo.
Her manager of winter maintenance, Chris Warren, said the city began a “systematic plow” on Monday at about 6 p.m. The city has a priority list with five categories. Work on collector streets was to get going after supper on Tuesday. Residential roads are at the end of the list.
“We haven’t forgotten,” said Gasmo. “We really do intend to get to the residential roads.”
She said crews are dealing with more snow than they ’ve seen over the whole winter season, and more than has hit Regina for several years past.
The city has called in 14 contracted snow graders to help with the effort, Warren added. Overall, about 40 pieces of equipment have been dispatched.
Many sidewalks across the city are still obstructed by the recent snowfall. Warren said the city has three or four sidewalk machines out on any given shift. Gasmo said work to improve accessibility will “take some time.”
“Clearing sidewalks is certainly part of our storm response,” she said. “Like roads, we’re trying to keep some major routes open so people can get access to transit — but we did receive a lot of snow.”
But she called on residents to pitch in and “help their neighbours,” particularly those who can’t navigate sidewalks due to mobility issues.