The City of St. Albert is increasing parking fines by $15 to offset the cost of a provincial fee that will charge municipalities that much for each electronic vehicle record search.
Starting in September, the city will have to pay the fee to access vehicle records when issuing tickets for violations related to photo radar, speed on green and parking. Fine levels for photo radar and speeding are set by the province, so the city can only control its parking fines, said municipal enforcement supervisor Aaron Giesbrecht.
The city expects the added fee to cost $490,000 next year, while raising the parking fines will only offset that by $16,000.
“I find it unfortunate that the province has downloaded this onto the municipalities but this small increase in our parking tickets is one way that we can recoup some of the costs,” said Coun. Cathy Heron.
Municipal enforcement officials felt it best to pass the increase onto violators rather than taxpayers.
“The alternative to that is to budget by way of a general tax increase. We didn’t feel that was appropriate,” Giesbrecht said.
St. Albert has no parking meters, so parking fines are not a large revenue source.
The city does issue tickets for a number of parking violations, such as parking contrary to a traffic control device, on a sidewalk, within five metres of a fire hydrant or in a single location for more than 72 hours.
The new fines will mean a fine of $365 for parking a truck where it’s prohibited, $115 for parking in a disabled person’s parking space and $75 for parking on private property without authorization.
The increase will only apply to violations that require processing. Violators will still have the option of paying early, in which case the fines won’t change, Giesbrecht said.
Last month, St. Albert banded with other mid-sized cities in urging the province to increase speeding and red light fines by $15.
