Parking machines to be loonie and tonnie friendly soon

TORONTO – Parking machines in the city will be compatible with the new loonie and toonie this summer, said the president of Toronto Parking Authority, Gwyn Thomas.

“Upgrading of close to 3,000 parking machines started two weeks ago and is expected to go on until end of June,” said Thomas.

Motorists in the city have been experiencing problems with some parking machines which won’t accept new coins causing them great inconvenience and sometimes being slapped with parking fines.

“Any person that thinks they have been given a parking ticket unfairly or due to a parking machine that won’t accept new coins should get in touch with the Toronto Parking Authority,” said Thomas.”I am not promising compensation but we will deal with the situation on a case by case basis.”

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The Royal Canadian Mint has absolved itself from the problems motorists have been going through saying it did its homework by communicating early with industry players.

“We notified all the stakeholders in the coin acceptance business way back in March of 2010 including the Canadian Parking Association and the Canadian Urban Transit Association of the impending changes,” said spokesperson of the Royal Canadian Mint, Alex Reeves.

“It was up to them to liase with their members that include the Toronto Parking Authority to ensure they started implementing changes in time,” said Reeves.
Some cities across Canada such as Edmonton and London have been successful in ensuring their parking machines are compatible with the new loonies and toonies.

“Implementation is a gradual process and despite the best efforts you can’t always achieve perfection which is the case for Toronto,” said Reeves.

The new one-dollar and two –dollar coins were introduced early this spring and they are made of steel unlike their predecessors which are made of nickel.

So, have you had any problems with any coin-accepting machines in the city?
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