Edmonton city council keeps ticket price for disobeying parking ban at $250

It’s a never-ending story in Edmonton: snow clearing on residential streets.

It took the city weeks to extend snow clearing into residential streets and implement a Phase 2 parking ban – and some neighbourhoods are still waiting.

Cory Campeau, who lives in North Glenora, just west of Edmonton’s downtown, believes the delay in his neighbourhood is due to residents not respecting the parking ban.

“It’s very frustrating because they’re asking us to move the vehicles off and all that. And a lot of people are… people are waiting. Where are you going to put your vehicles, right?”

“In my neighbourhood just over here, it was supposed to be a couple days ago. Now it’s called for Thursday.”

A new report from the city shows only 10 per cent of Edmontonians complied with the parking ban that went into effect last week.

The City of Edmonton initially planned to pause snow clearing during the weekend, but reversed that decision to keep the process moving along. In a Friday night news release, the city conceded it was giving less than the normal 72 hours of notice.

The move caught some Edmontonians off guard.

“They came in about 8:30 at night, just plowed everybody in,” said Christina Marois, who lives in Edgemont. “No parking signs, no nothing, they just swept everybody in and left. No grading, nothing. Just left it all for us to shovel.”

Marois’ streets were plowed Sunday.

“Got a text at 10:30 at night saying I can resume parking as normal. No text saying, ‘hey we’re coming around.’ I have my daughter to take to school the next day, so at 10 o’clock at night, I’m out here shovelling snow and ice, can’t see nothing. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Those in charge of snow and ice clearing at the City of Edmonton tell CityNews cars left on residential roads have been an obstacle for crews, adding if too many vehicles are left parked on the street, those neighbourhoods may be rescheduled or skipped.

On Monday, city council received an update on enforcement, with councillors reminded there’s not enough money in the budget to tow vehicles during the residential parking ban.

Edmonton only has five dedicated bylaw officers handing out tickets.

Councillors voted against a proposal to lower the ticket price from $250 to $150. They hope the revenue from those tickets can be used in part for better enforcement.

“I think we need to scale up our enforcement bylaw officers or our contracts with parking enforcement significantly in the next budget cycle to reflect that,” said Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford. “And I do think, one of the justifications of having that higher fine amount of $250 was to offset some of the cost of towing.”

Higher fines are something Campeau says he would like to see.

“I think that would be good actually in a way for people to actually get their cars out of the way. Instead of where it’s just blocked off. We need as much room as we can get on these streets.”

The City of Edmonton says since Jan. 12, 1,100 tickets have been issued.