Town of Newmarket, not courts, to deal with parking offence disputes

AMPS will allow town to deal with disputes, appeals of parking tickets to reduce court backlog

Yorkregion.com
July 17, 2018
Teresa Latchford

A new program will see parking offenders dealing with the Town of Newmarket rather than the court system.

Newmarket town council recently gave the green light to move forward with the Administrative Monetary Penalty System (AMPS) for parking offenses. The system would bring parking offence adjudication and disputes in-house rather than dealing with the matter through the court system, which is trending away from hearing parking matters since they are viewed as less serious.

Since authority was given to local municipalities in 2007, Brampton, Markham, Mississauga, Oshawa, Richmond Hill and Vaughan have all established AMPS.

“This system would allow matters to be dealt with in a timelier manner instead of waiting a year for the court,” deputy clerk Kiran Saini said. “This is a more customer-centric system.”

The system is intended to create a simple, accessible, fair and cost-effective system of dealing with bylaw violations and a means to reduce the current court backlog. The limited court time provided to municipalities creates a backup of cases, meaning parking violations are often being voided or withdrawn resulting in lost revenue for the municipality.

Under the new system a person wishing to dispute a parking ticket would schedule an appointment with the screening officer to cancel, reduce or affirm the ticket amount. Should the person wish to appeal the screening officer’s decision, an appointment with the hearing officer will be scheduled.

“Just to address any perception of bias, the hearing officer is a contracted position, not town staff,” Saini said.

The benefits of the system that is to be implemented in 2020 include it being an abuser-pay system, reducing the burden on taxpayers when individuals try to delay by booking a court appearance, courts are freed for more serious matters, customer service will increase and there is potential to include other bylaw infractions under the umbrella in the future.

Drawbacks include the decision being final and going back to the court system is not an option in the future, court processes continue to exist for matters already appealed and the potential perception of bias.

Town staff are currently working on updating bylaws, developing policies and procedures, reviewing the parking bylaw, recruitment and communication plan to educate the public.

For more, visit Newmarket.ca.