The City of Toronto plans to reform its parking ticket system that permitted drivers with out-of-province licence plates to avoid paying parking tickets.
Now the vehicles will be towed, Mayor John Tory announced Monday.
Tickets issued to non-Ontario drivers for parking illegally are not entered into their city’s database by parking enforcement officers. This loophole in the system has left a majority of the more than 100,000 tickets issued to out-of-province vehicles unpaid, Tory said at a press conference.
He called this called this a “get out of jail free card.”
“Repeat offenders, who own vehicles with out-of-province licence plates, have been a long standing problem in our city,” Tory said. “They park illegally, they block our streets and we have little recourse to punish them for breaking our laws.”
The new policy proposed by Tory will tow non-Ontario vehicles that have been issued three or more tickets, as occurs already with Ontario drivers.
“There will be no more thumbing of the nose at the laws by people with out of province plates because a tow truck will await them if they keep parking where they shouldn’t, just like everybody else.” Tory told reporters.
Tory also predicts this new policy to be a financial benefit to the city of between $1-2 million in revenue.
Tory said the city’s crackdown on illegal parking to date, has towed 962 vehicles and ticketed about 5,806 others since it started in early January. Tory said Torontonians have approached him saying it has made a “positive” difference in reducing traffic congestion.