Parking is a huge hassle for Rebecca Toderian.
The downtown resident moves her car to a free parking area in the Cathedral neighbourhood first thing every morning, and then walks back home to get ready for work.
“My reality kinda sucks,” she said. “I think for people that do live downtown there should be options, like there are in Cathedral, to put the sticker on your car so you don’t have to pay.”
Toderian lives in a ticket hot spot. The 1900-block of Scarth Street, 1800-block of Cornwall Street, and 1700, 1800 and 1900 blocks of Hamilton Street are the most ticketed in the city.
More than 50,000 tickets have been given out in Regina so far this year, an increase of nearly 9,000 compared to this time last year.
“I don’t even think it encourages other people that don’t live downtown to come downtown,” Toderian said.
The city has also been sending out letters to collect from those who still owe for tickets dating back as far as 2006.
The city ramped up its collections efforts a few years ago, parking services manager Faisal Kalim said, starting with the highest offenders. It’s now worked its way down the list and it’s sending letters to those owing for tickets dating back to 2006.
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“I think there should be some statute of limitations on it. That’s a little ridiculous to go after someone after 10 years. If you can’t get them after the first year, forgive them,” Regina resident Shane Harding said.
“I think people should pay their parking tickets. If you do the crime, you do the time,” resident Debbie Haygarth said.
If you don’t pay your ticket, you’ll get a notice that you will receive a summons to court, followed by a summons to court. If you fail to appear, you’ll also get a letter saying you’ve been found guilty, and you must pay by a certain date, Kalim said.
Approximately 200 parking tickets go to court a week, Kalim said.
“Of those, approximately 10 to 20 people will show up.”
If you still don’t pay, your credit could be affected.
“You’ll get a notice of collections saying basically here’s a breakdown of your entire account summary, any outstanding tickets you might have on your account. From that point, you would get sent to a collection agency, and then we would look at further measures, which could include placing a lien on the vehicle, immobilizing or seizing it, or actually selling the vehicle to reclaim our costs.”
There’s also an option for civil litigation, which could lead to garnished wages, Kalim added.
There is no statute of limitations on tickets. The only way a ticket is cancelled is if a person dies, and the estate must prove it, Kalim said.
“Going after a particular collectible ticket in perpetuity it doesn’t make good business sense, so we’re currently working on a new policy, so we can cancel tickets for being outstanding,” Kalim said.
However, more than 80 per cent of tickets are paid within the first year, Kalim said.
Parking attendants monitor the meters Monday to Friday from 7 am to midnight and on weekends from 8:30 am. to 5:30 p.m.
“For an entire complement we have 20 to 22 parking attendants,” Kalim said. “The number of enforcement officers on any given day varies, but we’ll have anywhere up to 10 urban on a weekday and four to seven mobile officers in the surrounding neighbourhoods.”
The most common offence is parking at an expired meter.
The highest offender owes $38,000.
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