Almost one in every five Victoria parking tickets issued were later cancelled, prompting one councillor to wonder why so many “incorrect” tickets are being written.
The cancellation rate is based on statistics from 2014, when 156,000 parking tickets were issued and 30,000 were cancelled.
That rate, which Coun. Geoff Young said seemed “enormously high,” was mentioned in a report on city bylaw changes designed to take parking ticket disputes out of the courtroom.
“That just seems enormously high for what you would think would be normally a pretty open and shut case of someone either staying too long at the meter or parking on the yellow line,” Young said.
“Why are so many tickets cancelled, or putting it another way: Why are one in five tickets issued incorrectly?”
Many of the tickets are cancelled because the motorist has entered the wrong parking stall number at the parking kiosk, said Katie Hamilton, director of citizen engagement.
“Often we will cancel a ticket if somebody has incorrectly entered the wrong space but, in fact, paid. … So that is a large part of it.”
The city has introduced a tracking system to get a better picture of why tickets are being cancelled, Hamilton said.
“We’d like [as much] rigour in the process as possible so no tickets are written in error,” she said.
The report says about 35,000 tickets ($1.57 million worth) were sent to a collection agency and only 400 were disputed in court.
Disputed tickets will soon no longer end up in a courtroom.
Councillors instructed staff to prepare the necessary bylaws to allow disagreements over parking tickets to go to dispute arbitration, under which the validity of a ticket will be decided by an independent adjudicator instead of through the court system.
“We expect that this program would increase operational efficiency for city staff, as city staff will no longer be required to wait in court for a number of hours for a hearing to be called,” said Christopher Paine, city manager of revenue.
City staff say incremental operating costs will be about $19,000 a year and startup costs will be about $25,000, mainly for software. Other municipalities that have implemented the system have found that after five years, an increase in voluntary payments (between five and 10 per cent) offset the additional costs.
Since 2004, the province has given municipalities the option of having disputed bylaws adjudicated outside the court system. The process was initiated through the Justice Ministry to reduce pressure on courts. The province oversees appointment of adjudicators, who are required to have specialized training.
In a typical adjudication, someone with a parking ticket completes an application within 14 days of the ticket being issued. They would then be contacted by a screening officer with the ability to cancel the ticket. If the dispute is not resolved, an adjudicator makes the final decision. If the ticket is upheld, the ticket holder pays the full cost of the ticket, plus a $25 fee. Fines vary and escalate if not paid in time.
Other B.C. communities using the adjudication system include: Nanaimo, Esquimalt, Port Alberni, Vancouver, West Vancouver, Delta, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Richmond, Abbotsford, Burnaby and Chilliwack.
Last May, Victoria opted to end its $1-million-a-year contract with the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires to bring parking enforcement in-house, hiring 19 new parking ambassadors who began patrolling the streets this month.
