City withdraws more than 800,000 parking tickets awaiting trial

The City of Toronto withdrew approximately 880,000 parking tickets in court on September 4.

In a statement issued Sunday, the city said"the number represents less than three per cent of all parking tickets issued between 2002 and 2014, and includes tickets for which a trial request had been submitted or a retrial ordered but no trial was yet scheduled."

The city said it "avoids pursuing tickets that have exceeded the time frame and have no reasonable prospect of conviction."

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Although the withdrawn tickets represent an estimated $20 million in potential revenue for the city, ticket withdrawal does not directly impact its budget because it identifies an amount to account for parking tickets that may be withdrawn, remain unpaid or reduced in courteach year.

Had trials been conducted for these parking tickets, the cost to the city of hearing them in court would have exceeded $23 million, the statement said.

The city says it is looking at alternative ways of processing parking ticket disputes, including "the use of an administrative monetary penalty system, which would take parking bylaw disputes out of the provincial court system and move them to an administrative review process."