Town staff acknowledged 134 of the 239 parking tickets issued in NOTL from Feb. 15 to 17 were wrongly given before snowplows began operating during the snowstorm.
During the Family Day long weekend, residents who parked on the road in Niagara on the Green received 187 parking tickets, each carrying a $50 fine.
Niagara on the Green resident Daniel St-Jean flagged the issue to councillors and criticized the enforcement as a “cash grab.”
“I looked around and thought, what the f— is this for? There hasn’t been a plow here in four days, and we’re supposed to get snow later — right now, there’s nothing! What’s this ticket for?” said St-Jean.
Though he avoided a ticket, he documented 54 penalties in his neighbourhood on Feb. 15.
“Can you spot a scam when you see one? I counted 54 tickets before I stopped looking. So the city scammed its people out of $2,700 Saturday morning.”
St-Jean raised his concerns to a bylaw officer issuing tickets to cars.
“We had a little bit of an exchange. It didn’t go well,” he said.
“She was telling me, she said, ‘Well, we have to give the tickets because there’s a bylaw in NOTL that forbids people from parking their car on the street in the winter.’ And I thought, ‘No there isn’t!'”
Under section 205.01.12 of the parking and traffic bylaw cited on the tickets, vehicles are prohibited from blocking snow-clearing operations. Parking in winter is not stipulated as grounds for a ticket.
Fire Chief Jay Plato confirmed 134 tickets issued between 5 a.m. and noon on Feb. 15 were voided and all associated penalties were cancelled.
“Due to mandatory driver hours, plow operators were required to take a break, and therefore, unfortunately, ticketing began several hours before the plows were active,” said Plato.
Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa defended the bylaw but acknowledged missteps.
“The gap here was that the plows didn’t arrive in time, which is hard to control during extreme weather,” Zalepa said.
He confirmed no bylaw changes are planned, calling the incident a “learning experience” for staff.
“Correcting this shows the process works.”
Of the 239 total tickets issued Feb. 15 to 17, Niagara on the Green’s Wright Court, 46, and Keith Crescent, 36, saw the highest numbers.
Neighbourhoods like Old Town received fewer tickets, with King and Victoria streets each recording one ticket over the long weekend.
The town of NOTL has since been trying to improve public education by sharing winter parking guidelines via a news release, frequent social media posts and information on the town’s website.
Residents seeking refunds for voided tickets must contact the town directly. Snow removal updates and bylaw details remain available on the town’s Plow Tracker portal.
