The following was to council members and Town of NOTL officials. A copy was submitted to The Lake Report for publication.

Dear editor:

I received a ticket the afternoon of Jan. 25 from the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake for parking on my residential street and interfering with snow removal.

I have zero intention of paying this ticket because, according to my lawyer, it constitutes fraud since I am accused of interfering with an action that the town never performs.

A photo I took the morning after I received the ticket, shows that no snow was “removed” or moved by the town.

And yet, the ticket states that my vehicle interfered with the “snow removal” operation.

The second reason I will not pay this ticket and will take it to court if needed, is the reference to “snow removal.”

A second photo taken two days after the ticket was issued, shows the town did come by and moved the snow from the centre of the street to the side.

A couple years ago, I had a conversation with a town manager who assured me that the municipality never removes snow but merely moves it from the middle of the road to the sides.

If you’ve lived in Montreal or Ottawa, you know what snow removal looks like.

Therefore, my vehicle did not interfere with moving the snow from the centre of the road, which means this ticket is a fraud aimed at grabbing more money from taxpayers.

My lawyer says that if I can collect 100 signatures from residents of Niagara on the Green we could start a class-action suit against the town accusing it of harassment.

That many signatures will not be hard to get as I already talked to a dozen immediate neighbours, all recipients of a similar ticket, and they are really ticked off.

So, my suggestions to the town are: a) quash the ticket I received and b) instruct town bylaw people to stop giving them out.

Or get your legal department ready for a fight in court.

Daniel St. Jean

Glendale