'They will be towing vehicles': Edmonton looks at stepping up seasonal parking ban enforcement

Winter is coming and the City of Edmonton is promising increased enforcement when it comes to seasonal parking bans.

The city wants to improve how it removes snow and ice from Edmonton roadways. An obstacle to snow removal is vehicles left parked along the street, preventing plows from effectively clearing the roadways.

"That means those crews have to constantly weave in and out of traffic," said Ward Nakota Isga Coun. Andrew Knack.

"It means they’re not doing as good of a job they like to do and it takes them longer because they’re constantly having to navigate."

One option being explored by the city is increasing the seasonal parking ban fines from $100 to $250.

"Ultimately this is supposed to help act as a deterrent to non-compliance during declared parking bans," said Ward Métis Coun. Ashley Salvador.

Edmontonians CTV News spoke with were in favour of the increased fines, as long as proper warning is given.

"The streets need to be kept clean and we need to have properly bladed streets. I guess that it has to happen that we have to have streets free of cars," said Edmonton resident Henry.

"I don’t see why not it’s a simple thing to do, just move your car somewhere," added Edmontonian Bob Ridley. "I don’t have a problem with the fines going up as long as they're putting the signage out to let them know that they’re coming."

According to Salvador, officers will still be issuing warnings in advance of residential street blading.

"Then that would be followed up with a ticket and tow in tandem with the actual snow and ice operators visiting a neighbourhood," she added. "This is not meant to be a punitive gotcha type fine.

"One thing the city really needs to improve on as well is education and letting people know when blading is going to be happening in their neighbourhoods.

Knack isn't completely sold on the fine increase, instead wanting the city to focus on towing vehicles that are in the way.

"It’s a handful of people who either aren’t paying enough attention or in certain cases… they’re actively choosing to leave their cars on the street," said Knack. "Those are the individuals that need to maybe have a heightened level of enforcement so it can’t just be a fine, it has to be removal of those cars so that crews can go in and do a better job more quickly for everyone.

"(The city was) trying to be really lenient and not immediately move to that level of punishment because… remember the change for the residential parking ban only came in a couple of years ago and so the city wanted to ease people into that change and not immediately jump to the towing of a vehicle."

The proposed changes to the seasonal parking ban enforcement are set to be voted on by a city committee this week. If they are approved by the committee, city council will need to give it final approval.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson