WINNIPEG - January 16, 2008 - Today, a new consolidated by-law enforcement unit and related by-law are one step closer to being reality at City Hall given the Mayor and Executive Policy Committee’s approval of the recommendations put forward by the City’s Public Service.

“This initiative will improve enforcement and provide a streamlined approach in enforcing by-laws that affect Winnipeggers everyday,” said Mayor Sam Katz. “By reducing red tape and finding efficiencies, we will continue to build a user-friendly city hall to benefit all our citizens.”

The recommendations approved today provide for the consolidation of the City’s by-law enforcement function, and the consolidation of all or part of 17 existing by-laws into a more user-friendly form. The creation of a consolidated by-law enforcement unit, to be housed in the Community Services Department, will provide a single point-of-access for the community when dealing with a range of by-law enforcement activities.

It is anticipated that the new unit - Community By-law Enforcement Services – would begin initial operations by November 2008, with full implementation planned for March 2009. The Unit would enforce 29 of the current City By-laws, 17 of which will be consolidated into a proposed Neighbourhood Liveability By-law. This proposed unit would enforce by-laws not requiring the specialized attention of the Winnipeg Police Service, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, or the building inspectors in the Planning, Property and Development Department. The new Neighbourhood Liveability By-Law, which will be primarily enforced by this new unit will provide for the enhanced integration of work and consistency of enforcement for those by-laws that affect the day-to-day lives of Winnipeggers.

These recommendations will be considered by Winnipeg City Council at its meeting on Wednesday, January 23, 2008.

WINNIPEG - January 16, 2008 - The Winnipeg Parking Authority (WPA) advised today that it has been experiencing intermittent problems with a number of parking paystations in the downtown due to a suspected problem with their internal printing mechanism. The Authority anticipates that these problems will be fully corrected by the end of the week.

Members of the public are advised that should they encounter a paystation which indicates “Out of Order” or one that will not accept money they should obtain a receipt at the next closest paystation. In the majority of cases, there are alternate paystations located within half a block of each other that can be used to purchase time for any metered spot in the downtown. The Authority is actively addressing each case where there may be an issue. Should a motorist encounter a situation where there are numerous paystations not working we would ask that they contact our dispatch centre (311).

As is always the practice with the WPA, should a motorist receive a ticket that they believe was issued in error due to a non-functioning machine they can submit a “Request for Review” to the Parking Authority via the following methods:

• Website - The Parking Store
• In person - at the Parking Store, 495 Portage Avenue (Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.)
• Email - 311@winnipeg.ca
• Mail – The Parking Store, 496 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg MB, R3B 2E4

The ticket will then be checked against the service logs to determine if the machine in questions was out of service.