It may officially be spring, but the Halifax parking ban is still in effect.
READ: Halifax parking ban: When you can and can’t park on the street overnight
City officials can choose to enforce the ban during “declared weather events” until March 31. Once it’s enforced, vehicles are prohibited from parking on city streets from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. so crews can clear snow. For those that choose to ignore the ban and leave their vehicle on the streets – tickets are issued.
To date, there have been 22 parking bans enforced in the 2016-17 winter season – resulting in 4,933 parking ban tickets.
That’s 174 more tickets than were issued during the 2015-16 winter season when the city enforced 15 parking bans and wrote 4,759 tickets.
While those numbers may seem high, the Halifax area had eight snow and ice events in just two months during the 2014-15 winter season.
Because of this, there were 47 parking bans enforced that season and officials handed out more than 12,000 parking ban tickets.
Tiffany Chase, spokesperson for the Halifax Regional Municipality, says the total annual budget for winter operations is around $22.5 million.
The total cost for two back-to-back storms in February 2017 are not yet available, but it’s anticipated there will be “a slight deficit” for the winter operations budget based at this time.