WELLINGTON NORTH ‒ A new parking bylaw brought questions from one councillor over whether the OPP can handle the increased need.
Created to “provide consistency with ticketing," the new bylaw was approved by Wellington North council earlier this week.
“Other than accessible parking contraventions, Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (will) not provide enforcement, it (needs) to be done by municipal by-law,” said the report. “Our current arrangement with Guelph for enforcement services does not include the parking by-law (and) staff is not recommending that we provide parking enforcement.”
While much of the bylaw remains the same, early fine payments have increased to $35.00, with a set $45.00 for all infractions. This excludes accessible parking spaces which would continue to see unauthorized vehicles fined $300.
According to Mayor Andy Lennox, updates to the bylaw will also enable Centre Wellington to try a pilot project of having their bylaw enforcement officers do some parking enforcement.
“They’re having problems (managing parking), particularly in Elora, ” said Lennox. “As you can imagine, tourist season and limited parking create a conflict that makes it difficult to manage.”
But Coun. Penny Renken questioned whether the OPP can manage parking bylaw enforcement in addition to their other tasks after one resident reached out about their parking concerns.
“When the person was (told) that it was an OPP matter rather than a township or bylaw matter, they (explained) that they had already called,” said Renken. “But the OPP had not responded to their complaint … they weren’t really interested in attending to this person’s complaint.”
According to the report, there were 18 enforced parking infractions in 2022.
“Parking is probably low in importance compared to (the OPP’s) other duties,” said Renken. “It may seem a very insignificant matter to us but to those that have the complaint, it may be a real issue.”
But Lennox maintained that he believes the OPP does respond to parking infractions “on a routine basis.”
“I think it’s a very difficult question to answer without knowing more about the context of the situation,” said Lennox. “I would hesitate to suggest that all situations are created equal.”
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
