JENNIFER ACKERMAN AND LYNN GIESBRECHT Compassion, not tickets, needed, councillor says

After complaints surfaced on social media about parents getting parking tickets outside St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School on a frigid Thursday morning when all school bus service was cancelled, the Regina Catholic School Division (RCSD) says school staff did not call the city for parking enforcement — someone in the neighbourhood did.

“(It) sounds like parents were potentially parking the way that they shouldn’t, or U-turns or whatever was going on, and somebody else called the city, so they were there,” said Twylla West, spokesperson for the RCSD.

Some social media posts also reported ticketing outside St. Kateri Tekakwitha school in Harbour landing.

St. Marguerite is located in Ward 4, which city councillor Lori Bresciani represents.

She didn’t receive any complaints or concerned phone calls from parents on Thursday, but upon hearing about the social media posts, she made her own call to the city manager to inquire about enforcement protocol during extreme cold weather scenarios.

“For sure they have a job to do, but we need to really step back and ... on a day like today, minus 40 with the buses being cancelled

... We have to use some common sense and have some compassion for people that are trying to drop their kids off,” she said.

With a shortage of parking in front of schools to begin with, the cancelled bus service puts even more strain on parking resources, Bresciani said.

Instead of ticketing, Bresciani would have liked to have seen it handled differently, if possible.

“If they have to be out there doing that ... give a warning, try and move traffic along ... rather than ticketing — would have been a better option for today,” she said.

The City of Regina declined a request for an interview, but emailed a written statement in response to the concerns.

“We understand and appreciate the efforts of parents ensuring their children arrive to and from school safely due to the extreme weather conditions and buses not running,” said the statement.

“On these bitterly cold days, we will take that into consideration and will use discretion, while ensuring open sightlines at crosswalks and intersections.”

Both the Regina Public Schools and the RCSD cancelled all school buses on Thursday morning as temperatures remained at levels upwards of -40 with the wind chill.

An extreme cold warning issued by Environment Canada on

Wednesday as temperatures of -40 to -46 were reported over most of southern and central Saskatchewan, continued Thursday.

“While we didn’t initiate this,” said the RCSD about the parking enforcement at St. Marguerite, “we would certainly encourage all parents and all drivers in any school zone to obey all of the traffic laws and all of the parking signs because it’s about safety.”