Program to collect dated parking tickets from motorists in development, city says

The City of Moose Jaw has nearly $1 million in outstanding parking tickets, but city hall could be developing a program that forces delinquent motorists to pay up.

During the recent city council meeting, Coun. Doug Blanc referred to the dated parking tickets and wondered if anyone had started paying them back.

The Moose Jaw Express learned in March 2021 that there are roughly $940,000 in outstanding parking tickets stretching back to 2011. Furthermore, one motorist has allegedly racked up more than 225 tickets and $20,000 in parking penalties.  

“We still have many outstanding parking tickets,” city manager Jim Puffalt said in response to Blanc’s query. 

The legislative and enforcement services department is developing a program to manage those “extensive clients” who have many tickets, he continued. City administration plans to bring the program to council within the next few months to deal with the issue.

“It’s going to be exciting because there’s opportunities now for collection,” Puffalt added. “As you know, that was part of our whole concept with making the legislative enforcement services division, is to get to some of those areas we haven’t been very good at.” 

Street signs

The public works and utilities department completed phase 2 of the street sign replacement program during the second quarter — April 1 to June 30 — this year. The replacement focused on the north-south boundary of Manitoba Street to Thatcher Drive and the east-west boundary of Fourth Avenue Northwest and Elgin Avenue.

Council approved this new initiative for the 2020 budget because the maintenance of municipal property is important, Puffalt said. 

“We just can’t neglect certain items, and certainly signs is one that, over time, there’s different spelling of names,” he added. “There’s all sorts of signs out there. And it’s important that we take a look at those on a regular basis.” 

Other highlights

Some interesting highlights from the second-quarter report include:

• The design for the demolition of the Coteau Street East bridge was at the tendering stage; the city will inspect the structure annually until demolition
• The offer to purchase the Old Union Hospital site collapsed, while further on-site environmental assessment is required and must be rectified to sell the property 
• City construction crews reduced the backlog of water repairs by seven from the first quarter and increased the number of repairs for the year by seven. The total number of repair backlogs stood at 116
• City hall worked on the agreement and design for the Westheath joint-use school
• City hall received Carpere Canada’s initial concept plan for the redevelopment of the former Valley View Centre site
• The engineering department will enter into mediation with Canadian Pacific Rail during the third quarter for the rehabilitation of the Thunderbird Viaduct/Fourth Avenue Bridge
• Three CUPE grievances were withdrawn and seven went to mediation. As of June 30, the fire association had one active grievance and CUPE had 14. This is an increase of nine from the first quarter. The city received a decision on an outstanding arbitration from 2021 with the fire association and the parties are negotiating a resolution 
• City hall issued 45 new business licences, renewed 151 licences and closed 39 licences; the total licences in each category, respectively, are 93, 1,675 and 129
• There were 96 building inspections during the second quarter, bringing the six-month total to 181 inspections
• There were 435 bylaw enforcement inspects during the quarter, bringing the six-month total to 864 total inspections
• City hall issued 81 building permits worth $72.3 million; in comparison, the city issued 64 building permits worth $31.5 million during the second quarter of last year

The next regular city council meeting is Monday, Sept. 12.