Toronto looking at big increases for parking ticket offences

The City of Toronto is looking at hiking fines for more than 100 parking violations — meaning drivers who get ticketed for offences will have to pay a lot more than what they’re used to.

The report highlights “a jurisdictional scan of several Canadian municipalities” that compared similar parking offences and penalty amounts with those in Toronto.

“This report recommends Council approval to increase penalty amounts for 123 offences associated with ‘parking,’ ‘stopping’ and ‘standing,'” the report said.

For the offence of not paying for parking at a machine, the current fine sits at $30. The report found the average fine across municipalities sits a little higher at around $35. In Ottawa, its the highest penalty, at $65.

For parking a vehicle in a commercial loading zone, and not doing any loading or unloading, the City of Toronto’s fine is $40. But the report found the average across municipalities to be almost double that at $76. The highest fine, found in Burlington, fines drivers $120 for that particular offence.

If approved and passed the increases for the parking violations would take affect on Aug. 1

With the number of violations issued in 2023, the report indicated the City could collect $62 million but with an actual increase in revenue expected between $40 to 50 million.

However, the report said the increases in penalty amounts are to “ensure better alignment” with other jurisdictions for consistency and the seriousness of the offence, and to “encourage compliance.”

The report also highlighted a need to establish new electric vehicle parking offences for off-street parking facilities where there are EV charging parking stalls.

“Currently, operators of off-street parking facilities, including the Toronto Parking Authority, have limited enforcement capabilities concerning EV parking due to a lack of offence provisions in the City of Toronto Municipal Code concerning parking in portions of parking facilities set aside for the charging of EVs,” the report said.

Most recently, the City of Toronto began to enforce on-street parking on statutory holidays, beginning on Family Day Monday, which was previously not enforced.