Regina mayor calls for booting cars to help collect more than $500K in unpaid parking tickets

Regina Mayor Sandra Masters says she supports stronger enforcement against unpaid parking tickets.

Regina is owed more than half a million dollars in unpaid parking tickets. Masters said she'd be in favour of booting vehicles if people don't pay up through a collection agency.

"I think you establish what the threshold is," Masters told The Morning Edition. "But at that point in time, you boot so you don't end up in a situation which, essentially, it's a mortgage."

A CBC News investigation found millions of dollars are owed in outstanding parking ticket fines in Saskatchewan's largest cities, with some people in Regina owing tens of thousands of dollars. Thirty residents collectively owe the city $529,160 from parking tickets alone.

The city said previously that it faces a $1.4 million loss in revenue from parking tickets during the pandemic as people were working from home, but that it was already trending downward before. The city had been focusing on educating residents instead of achieving compliance through strict enforcement, Masters said.

"A number of the worst offenders are on repayment programs. But when I ask the question about what our enforcement options were … we do have the authority within the existing bylaw and legislation to boot the vehicles so they can't be moved."

Masters said the previous council decided it wouldn't go in that direction and would instead go for collection agencies and repayment programs. Masters said she would prefer to see all options, including stronger enforcement.

"Something different has to happen."

After Masters' interview with The Morning Edition, a woman named Belle called the CBC's Morning Edition talkback line and said she has five unpaid tickets from being a student several years ago. She had left Regina for years then moved back and contacted the city to pay.

"At that time I was told I owed around $1,700. I'm not sure what the interest rate the city applies to parking fines, but for sure they are high and ... I'm a single income household and a precarious contract worker without income security."

The caller said the city told her that because of the time that had passed, she's not eligible for restitution program. She said she's concerned about being booted.

"I'm still unable to pay. Not the fines themselves, but the very high interest that the city keeps adding to them. It would be great to see the city have some flexibility for those of us who are, we're interested to pay, but under these circumstances that are not entirely our fault."

Masters said the parking fines are currently city administration's purview. She said a report on enforcement policy and thresholds about when to boot a vehicle is expected at the end of May or in June.