LATEST STORIES:
$3.5M of unpaid parking fines recorded in Hamilton since 2020

The City of Hamilton says they are owed $3.5 million in unpaid parking fines tracing back to 2020 and are pointing to provincial license renewal changes as a key factor.
By-law officers hand out around $5 million worth of parking fines each year and they estimate nearly $500,000 will not be paid on time, but that number dramatically increased over the past year.
2022 alone saw $1.8 million going unpaid, and City Council says that the unpaid fines will lead to issues in project development throughout the city.
Due to the outstanding fees, the City says it is looking at less funding for infrastructure work and capital projects.
READ MORE: Hamilton’s emergency food services reaching capacity: committee
Council says that the reasoning behind unpaid tickets varies from avoidance, to individuals stopping driving altogether, or even death. However, they are also pointing to a provincial government decision as a key factor in the unpaid fees piling up.
They say that eliminating license plate stickers and renewal fees has led to an increase in the amount of people forgetting to renew their license plates in general, which is usually when parking fines would be paid as the process cannot be done with outstanding fines.
In a planning committee meeting yesterday, committee chair John-Paul Danko admitted to being one of those Hamiltonians to have an outstanding ticket because of the changes in the license renewal process.
Hamilton’s planning committee is asking Mayor Andrea Horwath to raise the issue with the Ministry of Transportation.
READ MORE: Police seize 6 firearms and 100K in illicit drugs from Hamilton home