Sometimes you have to wonder if the whole process is even worthwhile. We pay people to hand out tickets and to monitor the streets. We frustrate workers, shoppers and business owners who just want go about their day, and in the end, what are we really accomplishing?
The City of Regina is currently in the process of trying to recoup nearly $2 million in unpaid parking tickets. Two million!?! That's a lot of bucks we're talking about. The city's top offender reportedly owes more than $20,000 in unpaid fines, that equals approximately 280 tickets, many of which were received in one area of the city.
Two million? Twenty thousand? How does the situation get to this extent?
While it happens on a much smaller scale, the same is applicable in smaller centres like Yorkton. We pay a commissioner to watch the streets, through rain, through snow, through sleet, through hail, they go about their day diligently handing out tickets and for what? Many go unpaid as they do in Regina, and when all is said in done we likely fork out more than we recoup. Why don't we just open up the parking and make it free?
The way the system currently works in Regina (just a simple little process - NOT) is... if you get a ticket, you have 14 days to pay it at a reduced rate. If it remains unpaid, you get a reminder in the form of a notice of pending summons. If you still don't pay it, you'll get a summons to appear in court. If you don't show up in court, you'll be convicted and given more time to pay. After that period expires, a late fee is added. If you don't pay then, the city will register a lien against your vehicle. It also has the power to send files to a collection agency or to tow an offender's vehicle and sell it to recoup the money the city is owed. But the latter repercussions generally aren't implemented.
That's a whole lot of timely and costly processes if you ask me, that in the end, don't appear to be effective.
Granted, there will always be honest people who while they may not be happy about it, will take the ticket and pay. I happen to be one of them. But what about those who are just passing through town? Or those who just don't care. If we're going to go through the bother and expense of having a ticketing system, then there has to be efficient and effective means to see the process through. I say bump up the number of parking spots and scrap the tickets.
