Saying “compliance” was not where it needs to be, a Winnipeg council committee voted in favour of raising fines for those who park illegally during snow-clearing.

The city’s public works committee passed the measure at a meeting Tuesday morning. If approved by full council, fines would go from $150 to potentially $300, if not paid early.

The head of the city’s public works department said upwards of 5,000 fines were issued per snow event in 2013-14 and he does not believe communicating the Know Your Zone program is the problem.

“The reality is that we know there’s more calls from crews out there from vehicles in the way ... and it is more than they are currently able to address,” public works director Brad Sacher said.

“The issue that we’re finding is we still have a significant amount of tickets where people simply aren’t moving their vehicles. The advertising has been on billboards, buses, TV and radio, all forms of media, so we don’t think it’s an issue of people not being aware.”

Only outgoing Coun. Dan Vandal opposed the fines, suggesting Winnipeggers are “fined out” from all the levies the city has in place.

“We have red-light cameras, we have speed cameras, we have the new school (zone) policy, which is resulting in quite a few fines,” Vandal said. “And we’ve had a couple of brutal winters frankly with lots of snow and, for whatever reason, the Know Your Zone communication is not being understood by too many Winnipeggers. I think it’s just too easy to say if we double the fines, it’s going to be an incentive.”

Coun. Justin Swandel (St. Norbert), the chair of the committee, said Winnipeggers are being given ample notice about Know Your Zone.

“I don’t think anybody can say there hasn’t been enough communication on the Know Your Zone,” Swandel said. “It’s one of the most communicated messages that comes out of the city. It will be communicated as strong as we possibly can and if people fail to abide by the rules or find out how to do it, then they’re going to get the fines.”

The committee also approved a recommendation to re-prioritize selected “high-pedestrian routes” in residential neighbourhoods from P3 to P2 while also OK’ing a bump in 2014 snow-clearing funding and a $1.66-million boost to the 2015-17 operating budgets to fund improvements in future years.

david.larkins@sunmedia.ca

Twitter:@LarkinsWSun