TORONTO

Toronto drivers rolled closer to a 10-minute parking ticket grace period on Monday.

The government management committee approved a move to change the city’s bylaw to prevent Toronto Police parking enforcement officers from writing a ticket until 10 minutes after a pay and display parking receipt has expired.

Government management committee chairman David Shiner said the change will help ensure “people will no longer feel that they’ve been ripped off in the city.”

“Although (parking tickets) were revenue for the city, they’re meant to control the length of time that you park on the street,” Shiner said. “It’s a three-hour maximum and you pay for the time that you’re there. We don’t want people to feel that they’re being taken advantage of or it’s tax-grab if you’re five or six or seven minutes late and your watch is different than the watch of the parking enforcement officers.

“That’s not fair, that’s not reasonable, and it’s not going to happen anymore.”

Shiner stressed the grace period will only apply to drivers who actually pay for parking and not those who park to pick up a coffee and try to get away without feeding the meter.

“It’s a grace period after your parking ticket expires,” he said. “So if you want to go in and grab a coffee and park at the side of the street, if it says it’s paid parking, it’s paid parking.

“But if you happen to be stuck in line and you paid for 10 minutes and it took you five minutes extra, the city is not going to be dropping a ticket on your dashboard.”

The change still has to be approved by city council at the next meeting in April.