City Of Toronto Cancels More Than 800,000 Parking Tickets


Toronto, Canada decided to withdraw around 880,000 parking tickets. The tickets were withdrawn a few days ago. According to CTV, a statement was released and it said that the number of tickets withdrawn represent less than three percent of all tickets issued between 2002 and 2014. The statement also said that this included parking tickets for which a request for a trial was made or retrial ordered but no trial was scheduled yet.

The estimated total for the unpaid tickets is an estimated $20 million, which is a lot of money. However, the city would have spent more than that if it decided to bring each case to court. Therefore, it was worthwhile to just to cancel the fines.

A city attorney made their way to court on Friday to have the tickets withdrawn.

According to International Business Times, the mayor of Toronto wasn’t happy over the whole issue surrounding the tickets. The mayor, John Tory, said he was angry because the whole thing represents a failure of management. He also said that the whole issue with the parking tickets happened before his time and someone decided that they were going to do a bit of housecleaning.

That’s not all the mayor had to say about the parking ticket situation. He added that he thinks this deserves an examination by the auditor.

Another reason why the parking tickets were withdrawn was because of the time frame in which disputes over the tickets could have been resolved. The statement that the city released mentioned that people have a right to a trial within a reasonable amount of time, as this is ensured by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Historically, the time frame for parking tickets is between 12-16 months. The statement also said that the city seeks to avoid pursuing parking tickets that have exceeded the time frame, as well as avoid pursuing tickets that really not have a prospect of conviction.

The unpaid ticketswill not affect Toronto’s budget. This is because each year, the potential cost of tickets that may be withdrawn and remain unpaid is included in the budget.

Asides from Toronto, Chicago has had to deal with its own issues with tickets, but Chicago is tackling the problem in a different way than Toronto. From November 1 to December 15, those who owe any debts to the city, not just parking and speeding tickets, can pay them without having to pay interest, penalties or back taxes. Also, this applies to unpaid tickets and violations issued before 2012, and after December 15, penalties and interest will start to accumulate again.

[Image by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images]

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