City of Winnipeg plans stricter enforcement of towing policy along designated winter routes
In past, city only towed when lots of snow on roads
Winnipeggers who leave their vehicles parked on designated winter routes overnight could wake up to find they've been towed, even if there's no snow on the road.
The winter route parking ban goes into effect at 2 a.m. on Saturday, and the City of Winnipeg plans to enforce its towing policy more strictly.
In the past, the city would only tow if there was a lot of snow on the ground.
Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) called for stricter enforcement.
"And that came to light last winter when we saw cars with 10 feet of snow on them on these routes that clearly had been sitting there for a long time and hadn't been towed," Lukes said.
"This is a concern of mine in the Waverley West ward, because we have an awful lot of density. There's not a lot of parking spots, so we have to really not plug up our major corridors that are used by the emergency vehicles."
The city says it will now tow vehicles at any time while the parking ban is in effect, not only when there is snow on the road as it did in the past.
"The reason for the ban, besides assisting in an effective snow clearing, it's really crucial for vehicles not to be on those routes to be able to provide ice control measures and activities on it, like salting and sanding," said Michael Cantor, streets maintenance manager with the City of Winnipeg.
"We found that the vehicles parked on those routes are really prohibiting us to provide ice control activities efficiently, and those … need to be treated for ice control to make sure that it's safe to drive on them. So, therefore, we expect the residents to respect the ban and not park on those routes throughout the whole term of the ban."
Besides the cost of towing, a violation of the ban comes with a $100 fine, which can be reduced to $75 if paid early.
While the city says it needs to tow vehicles in order to be able to properly plow the streets, some residents say they're not happy about the idea of stricter enforcement.
"I think it's crazy," said Hope Haddad.
"They need to start leaving notes, or just maybe tow it to the next block. They tow it everywhere, don't even know where. And then when you call the places they don't even know what your vehicle is."
Hope's mother, Tara Haddad, agreed.
"I just don't know where they expect us to park," she said. "If there's no parking, especially, like I was saying, single moms with young kids, you don't want to walk six blocks to get home."
The move to stricter enforcement is among several changes the city has made to the annual snow clearing routes.
The snow routes are also getting a new name: they're now "winter routes" instead of "snow routes."
The duration of the ban has also changed. Previously, the ban came into effect on Dec. 1 and ended the last day of February.
Now, the ban can be declared any time after Nov. 1 with a week's notice, and will remain in place until the city declares an end to the snow season, up until the end of April.
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