A Regina man is planning to fight city hall on a ticket he was issued after he ran an extension cord out onto the road to keep his car plugged in.
The problem lies with a city bylaw stating no person can place a cord or cable on any public highway or sidewalk.
Bob Klassen was issued the $60 ticket after temperatures took a dip. He says he’s a law-abiding citizen, but is forced to keep a car on the street because his driveway isn’t big enough. And when temperatures drop, he has to plug his car in or he has to jump it every day.
“The bylaw is written in such a way that there’s no actual way to run a cord to the street,” Klassen says. “I’m stuck, I’m at a loss. I have no idea where to go or what to do.”
Dwayne Flaman, manager of bylaw enforcement, says the law is in place to prevent the public from getting hurt.
“(It) allows people not to trip over cords that are across sidewalks, if someone is cleaning snow that they’re not going to get injured if its plugged in, it could get caught in snowblowers,” he said.
The city adds it does not pro-actively go out and look for cords across sidewalks, it only responds to complaints to Service Regina.
City protocol is to give residents 24 hours notice to comply before ticketing.
Yet the problem is that it isn’t the city that issues the ticket.
Most of these infractions are given by the Commissionaires, who work under Regina police.
Police spokeswoman says officers can out looking for bylaw infractions – and they don’t give warnings.
“We don’t wait for a complaint,” she says. “Residents are not to have their vehicles parked on the street, if you want to plug in a vehicle you need to make some way to have that vehicle on your property.”
Meanwhile, Klassen says the only advice he is being given is to make his driveway bigger so he doesn’t have to park on the road.
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