KAGAWONG—It appears one of the biggest stumbling blocks in enforcing no parking-stopping violators in communities such as Billings Township and the Municipality of Central Manitoulin is going to be resolved with changes being made to the Highway Traffic Act, Manitoulin-Espanola Ontario Provincial Police Inspector Detachment Commander Megan Cavanagh told members of the Manitoulin Community Police Advisory Committee (CPAC) last week.
At the CPAC meeting last week, CPAC Chair Al Boyd told the meeting, “I sent an email out to all members of the committee, asking if they would like us to bring up any issues. Bryan Barker (a Billings township councillor) voiced a concern that has been an ongoing issue for years with people parking their vehicles on both sides of the highway in Kagawong by the Bridal Veil Falls.”
Inspector Cavanagh explained, “in regards to that, one of the challenges we (OPP) have had to face with no vehicles stopping on roadways is that our officers have had to wait until the driver is back at their vehicle to give them a ticket. However, the MTO (Ministry of Transportation) is going to be granting permission for the OPP to able to process e-tickets to hand out to people parking illegally on provincial highways, so an officer doesn’t need to wait for a vehicle owner to arrive back at their vehicle to forward them a ticket. There will be a small fine with this, and it will be the owner of the vehicle who will be charged. We will see, but hopefully this will help.”
“That’s great news,” said Councillor Barker after the CPAC meeting. He pointed out the township does not want to deter tourism, “but this issue needs to be addressed.”
Councillor Barker said out Billings has its own public parking lot in place on the highway coming into Kagawong before Bridal Veil Falls. “We are looking at maybe more and larger signage to encourage people to use this space,and in our rebranding project. Hopefully this will come out of it as well.”
“That’s positive, it’s a good thing,” Councillor Barker said of the news provided at the CPAC meeting and a conversation he had with OPP Inspector Cavanagh. “There are provisions in the provincial Highway Traffic Act to allow electronic ticketing of vehicles. This has more teeth to it than the township passing no parking-stopping vehicles bylaws. The OPP will be able to enforce any infractions, even if the vehicle owner is not on hand.“
He said this will require public education, for instance posting on the township website to let members of the public know.
“It will be up to council if they are in favour of this, but I would suggest we could put signage up informing people of the change,” said Councillor Barker. “For example, we could have signs posted at the top of the stairs to the (Bridal Veil) Falls indicating to the public that if they have parked on the highway by the falls they can be ticketed by the OPP.”
“We have time but we need to look at signage or the next steps we are going to take before this year’s tourist season,” he said, noting no parking-stopping signs need to be posted on the highway going out of Kagawong towards Gore Bay as well.
