Car owners who get parking tickets by mail in Mississauga must also pay an extra charge on top of the fine.
Mississauga city council recently approved a $10 mail-out fee to be paid by offenders who have parking infraction notices sent to their home. The additional charge will cover costs associated with the City of Mississauga’s new way of delivering penalty notices.
Mailing some tickets to registered owners of illegally parked cars is among several changes to City of Mississauga parking enforcement rules that took effect Oct. 1.
Parking tickets will still be left on vehicle windshields whenever possible. However, where doing so could be dangerous or otherwise difficult for bylaw enforcement officers, the city can now simply record the licence plate and send an infraction notice to the vehicle owner by mail.
“Serving a penalty notice by mail requires additional administrative steps to prepare, quality-check, process, print and mail the notice,” Mississauga’s community services commissioner Raj Sheth noted in an earlier report to council that proposed the new charge.
Revenue from the fee, which will be charged only when a penalty notice is served by mail, “is expected to offset the costs incurred by the city in administering the mail-out process,” Sheth added.
The report concluded that parking tickets “will continue to be affixed directly to vehicles wherever it is safe and reasonably practicable to do so. Mail service will provide an alternative in circumstances where direct service is not safe or reasonably practicable.”
Situations where placing a parking ticket onto a vehicle windshield may not be the best option include when a car is illegally stopped or parked in a school zone “where vehicles frequently depart before a notice can be safely affixed, potentially creating risks for officers, pedestrians and other road users,” Sheth explained in the report.
Under the new rules, those who get parking tickets are also going to have more time to pay up, or challenge the fines. They now have 30 days, double the previous 15-day period, to pay the fine or request a review of the matter.
The city said the changes, approved by council in June, are part of an effort to modernize parking enforcement, improve compliance with parking regulations and enhance service delivery efficiency.
“These changes are meant to make parking enforcement safer, more efficient and fairer for vehicle owners while giving people more time to receive, review and respond to a penalty notice,” city officials said earlier.
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