Be careful where you park in Lake of Bays. The Township will start cracking down on illegally parked vehicles on year-round maintained roads.
At its February 8 meeting, and in a recorded vote, a majority of council voted in favour of discontinuing the Township’s practice of giving motorists a courtesy warning. Instead, staff was given authority to implement a policy that could see illegally parked vehicles on winter maintained roads immediately towed.
While some councillors expressed concern with the heavy-handed nature of the approach, staff reminded council that the municipality could be held liable if damage to a vehicle takes place because the plow is unable to squeeze through, if an accident occurs due to the illegally parked vehicle, or if emergency responders have no access because the road isn’t plowed. Likewise, staff noted that once illegally parked vehicles are moved, snow windrows are left behind which could freeze with a drop in temperature and also become a liability.
Councillor Rick Brooks questioned what would happen if a motorist went skiing, for example, and returned to find their vehicle gone and had no cell signal. “Or they’ve got a health issue. They’ve been skiing and you know somebody has broken their leg or something, there’s no cell coverage, you can’t get out to deal with the situation. It’s a double-edged sword. I have a real challenge with this.”
Lake of Bays Mayor Terry Glover said the illegally parked cars delay snow plow operations, which people get upset about. “We’re not just disregarding our public here, the law is the law. It’s like speed laws, you know a law’s in place for speeding and I have people wanting to go faster…”
Councillor Mike Peppard asked whether the municipality could also be liable if someone froze on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal because they left their car illegally parked for two hours and when they returned it was gone. He suggested that the change in approach be preceded by an education campaign.
Discussions continued. Councillor Bob Lacroix noted that sometimes vehicles fail in the dead of winter. He also said some people may arrive at their residence late at night and may not be able to get into their driveway until they’ve cleared the snow in the morning.
Councillor Nancy Tapley questioned what would happen if someone had a heart attack, for example, and emergency responders were not able to get to them because the road wasn’t plowed due to an illegally parked car blocking the way.
Township superintendent of public works Steve Peace told councillors that some residents had already received multiple warnings and the practice of courtesy warnings was impacting the municipality financially by taking up staff time. He also expressed concern about liability as well as the safety of plow drivers.
“Over the last decade or so our society has become much more litigious and every effort must be made to ensure we continue to achieve both the District of Muskoka’s and the Township’s Minimum Maintenance Standards. Therefore, it is hereby recommended that the Township’s long-standing practice of issuing Courtesy Warnings for impeding Winter Operations cease immediately and the Ontario Highway Traffic Act (HTA) be followed. This would result in vehicles that are parked illegally on traveled roadways within the Township of Lake of Bays being towed immediately if they impede Winter Operations,” stated Peace in his report.
Glover questioned whether councillors could also be held personally liable should an incident occur.
“When a report comes to council. When it comes either from one of your staff or from an engineer, or from a lawyer, some professional – that’s your professional advice. If council knowingly does not follow that advice you fall under what’s called the Negligence Act, in other words, you have knowingly gone against the advice of your professionals. If you ever go to do that, I would highly recommend that council go into a recorded vote because those who don’t follow it, the courts will chase after those who caused the situation and they’ll come after you personally,” said Township CAO Bryan Brown.
In the end, all councillors, except for Councillor Lacroix, voted in favour of the recommendation to discontinue courtesy warning and give staff the ability to immediately have illegally parked vehicles towed.
You can find the staff report here (pdf).
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The devil’s advocate just for a moment.
Ah! the grey area.
” being towed immediately if they impede Winter Operations,”
So would this mean that even if they are parked illegally, if they are NOT IMPEDING Winter operations then they would not need to be towed??
This means we need a definition of “impeding Winter Operations”. If the plow and sander can easily pass by a parked car squeezed tight to the snowbank, is this car “impeding” any operation by being there? Think maybe Bell, fixing a cable that takes several days and they have their little orange cones out. Is this any different from a contractor shoveling a roof or adjusting an ice a way? (maybe no cones?)
With all possible liabilities floating around maybe it would be better not to plow the roads at all as we shall always be stuck (sometimes literally) with the question of if the road was maintained adequately. I suppose if you elect not to maintain it at all then the question of adequacy would vanish, or not?
And while on the subject, if the township plows the road, say 4 or 5 feet wider than it actually is by using their great big wing on the plow…. well if somebody makes the assumption that the plowed width of the road is all safe to drive on and then to their dismay, discovers otherwise on this “over plowed” section. Is the township liable for creating this hazardous situation? A person unfamiliar with the road would not have any idea this hazard existed as most significant roads are good to drive on from snowbank to snowbank but in Ontario, many back roads are not like this.
Lawyers are going to have so much fun with Canadian winter……