HALIFAX—As the city settles into winter’s unpredictable grip, many Halifax area residents are still ignoring the overnight parking bans during storms.

Since Dec. 19, the ban has been invoked five times, which resulted in more than 2,000 tickets to motorists who did not remove their vehicles from municipal streets between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. to allow city crews to clear snow.

“So far this season we’ve given out hundreds of tickets each time the overnight winter parking ban has been enforced, so this is definitely an ongoing issue,” Halifax Regional Municipality spokesperson Erin DiCarlo said in an email.

“Having a high volume of parked vehicles on streets restricts clearing crews from gaining access to many areas and can really slow down the cleanup process.”

The city can ban overnight street parking between Dec. 15 to March 31 each year. DiCarlo said it was used nine times last season, with a total of 3,087 tickets issued between Jan. 16 and March 23, 2018.

The first of this year’s five bans began Dec. 19, 2018 and the last was issued on Jan. 21, 2019, resulting in a total of 2,032 tickets.

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Of those, 662 tickets were given out during a Jan. 9 parking ban alone. This breaks last season’s record, when a March 9, 2018 overnight winter parking ban resulted in 610 tickets.

DiCarlo said there are six dedicated staff members to issue tickets during overnight winter parking bans, which is the same number of staff as last year. This is supplemented by police, who also issue tickets for parking violations.

“Help us by ensuring your vehicle is not left on the street any time snow is in the forecast,” DiCarlo said. “We don’t want to ticket or tow. The objective is to keep vehicles off the streets to facilitate efficient and safe clearing.”

To help ensure the streets are properly cleared, the municipality has stepped up its enforcement around hospitals, schools, on bus routes and problem streets for snow equipment and emergency vehicles.

Problem streets are described by DiCarlo as streets that are particularly narrow or have challenging elements such as sharp turns.

“There are trouble spots across the municipality, many of which are on the peninsula. Trouble spots are those areas that we’ve identified as generally having a higher number of illegally parked vehicles,” she said.

The fine for parking where it might interfere with snow removal or winter maintenance is currently $50, but that fine could double to $100 if Halifax regional council gets its way.

Last week, councillors voted to ask the province to increase fines for three categories of parking violations. The provincial government has the final say on whether those municipal fines will rise.

Breaking down the overnight winter parking ban numbers:

2018-2019 (to date):

Dec. 19, 2018 – 364 tickets

Dec. 29, 2018 – 329 tickets

Jan. 2, 2019 – 454 tickets

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Jan. 9, 2019 — 662 tickets

Jan. 21, 2019 – 223 tickets (plus 60 issued during the storm for obstructing snow removal)

2017-2018:

Jan. 16, 2018 — 224 tickets

Jan. 18, 2018 — 174 tickets

Jan. 30, 2018 — 353 tickets

Jan. 31, 2018 — 268 tickets

Feb. 26, 2018 — 367 tickets

March 9, 2018 — 610 tickets

March 10, 2018 — 581 tickets

March 14, 2018 — 197 tickets

March 23, 2018 — 313 tickets

Correction-January 22, 2019: This article was updated from a previous version that mistakenly totalled the number of winter parking ban tickets through the first five storms of 2018-19 at 2,122. The correct total is in fact 2,032.

Yvette d’Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on health. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

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