General News

Mono collects the lion’s share of last year’s parking tickets

February 5, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Mono Bylaw Enforcement wrote 325 parking tickets last year.

Those parking citations injected $23,804 into municipal coffers by the end of 2024. Of the 325 parking tickets last year, as much as 90 per cent of them have been paid.

According to a report to Mono council, despite a decrease in parking patrols, infractions increased compared to 2023 when 236 tickets were issued and resulted in $17,698 to the town’s purse. The busiest month last year was October when enforcement staff wrote 175 tickets for $13,416. September 2024 was second with 35 tickets for $2,470.

Bylaw enforcement responded to 219 requests for service last year. That is in addition to the 21 open files from 2023. Those 240 files in 2024 don’t include parking enforcement.

Requests for service increased compared to 2023 when bylaw enforcement responded to 126 service requests.

Of the 240 service requests, 212 files were closed for a closure rate of 88 per cent.

At the beginning of this year, there were 28 active investigations with 23 open from 2024 and five open files ongoing from 2023.

Of that tally, there were 54 “Clean Yards” investigations. Of those, 10 are ongoing and 44 have been resolved.

Councillor Ralph Manktelow said there’s been a persistent problem with the trailers of heavy transport tractor-trailer trucks being parked on residential lots. He wanted to know if such incidents are classified in the Clean Yards category of investigations listed.

“Trailers are a difficult one for Bylaw Enforcement to pursue,” said Fred Simpson, the town’s clerk. “The couple that we were successful on, we were able to argue that they were transport operations which was contrary to the zoning bylaw. So the charges were laid under the Planning Act.”

The zoning bylaw also prohibits the use of a trailer for storage on a property, he said. Such incidents were also pursued as Planning Act infractions.

“Where you get rural property owners who may keep one or two trailers but is clearly not trying to run a transport operation is a little more challenging,” Simpson said. “We are proceeding with those. We do have both the zoning bylaw and our trailer bylaw to try to use.”

The complication with enforcing the zoning bylaw is having to go to provincial court, he said.

“There is no such things as fines within the Planning Act,” he said.

And also: “It’s not under the Municipal Act so we have different rules that we have to follow,” Simpson said.

“I think the public should know that, of the 212 bylaw enforcement cases that were resolved last year, they were all resolved with no charges being laid,” Deputy Mayor Fred Nix said. “They were just resolved by discussing with the landowner what had to change and the landowner made the change.”

“Mostly they were resolved that way,” Simpson said. “We did go to court on a couple of issues.”

But the issues had been primarily resolved through voluntary compliance, Simpson said.

“I think the other thing the public should be aware of is we do have a lot of bylaws,” Nix said. “So we do a lot of regulating. But our bylaws are all complaint-driven.”

Other than parking, it’s only when a town’s Bylaw Enforcement staff gets a complaint is an issue investigated.

“Bylaw Enforcement is proactive on some things,” Simpson said. “For example, signs.”

Regarding signs, staff had 21 issues. Of those, 17 have been resolved and four investigations continue. Animal Control complaints were the highest with 57 complaints. Just two of those are ongoing.

“Largely, our bylaws are complaint driven,” Nix said.

Bylaw Enforcement officers logged 996 hours in 2024. And Coun. Elaine Capes wanted to know how much the town paid for those hours.

“For last year, parking enforcement came under budget,” Simpson said. “And we were on budget for bylaw enforcement. That would cover the two enforcement officer that we have.”

Simpson said enforcing municipal bylaws cost $80,000 in 2024, and that included a clerk’s hours managing the department.

“There’s 10 per cent of those tickets that are unpaid,” Capes said. “Who is collecting that?”

Simpson said that would be collected in Provincial Offences Act court.

“Some of it just takes longer to collect so we do issue notices that tickets are unpaid,” he said. “We have a process that we follow to seek payment. If we don’t get it, then we take those to court and seek a conviction in court in absentia, basically.”

Readers Comments (0)