A downtown Montreal man got a nasty surprise a couple of weeks ago when his car was ticketed in front of his home.
Jean-Pierre Colgan-Nolin left his car parked on the street in front of his home one morning after a snowfall the night before, and didn't realize he wasn't allowed to spend 24 hours in the same parking space.
That misjudgement could cost him $53.
Colgan-Nolin says he was stunned by the fine — in part, because there are no signs around informing him of the 24-hour limit.
“I found it really ridiculous – it’s totally absurd,” he said. “When I called to complain about my ticket and ask them for information, they told me I had to look by myself. I told them it would be a good idea to tell the people that buy the parking permit, to inform them of the law,” he explained.
Eric Lamontagne, an attorney with the group SOS Ticket, says it would be a good idea to inform people of the bylaws in effect when they apply for a parking permit — but he suggests that might not be enough to have the ticket overturned, should Colgan-Nolin go to contest it.
“They’ll say ‘listen, you need to know about all the bylaws in Montreal,” Lamontagne said.
According to mayor Valerie Plante's budget, the city is looking to raise an additional $12 million in speeding and parking tickets, but Colgan-Nolin says, if this is the way the Plante administration is trying to encourage public transit use, he'll just use his car.
“They want us to take the metro more often, the bus — but with that kind of ticket, I’ll have to take my car more often,” Colgan-Nolin said. “I can’t leave my car in front of my place.”