The city of Winnipeg has refunded or cancelled 82 parking tickets given out between Dec. 2 and 23, 2017.

This is due to a shift in enforcement regulations the public was not aware of.  

In late November, the Winnipeg Parking Authority tried to provide some clarity on when people had to pay in order to receive their two hours of complimentary parking on Saturdays. The city updated the rules on their website but didn't send out any public notices. 

The switch meant the public had to pay for two hours of parking in order to receive their two complimentary hours. 

"The enforcement practices that were in place (before) were if an officer came to a vehicle they would look to see if there's payment on the dash. If there wasn't payment they would chalk the vehicle and come back in two hours to see if there was additional payment for another two hours," Winnipeg Parking Authority Chief Operating Officer, Randy Topolniski told reporters yesterday. "Conversely if there was a receipt on the dash originally they would add an extra two hours and come back in four hours and if the vehicle was still parked they would issue a ticket." 

Topolniski said the city usually issues warning tickets first when any kind of enforcement change like this happens. 

"In this situation the enforcement officer made an error and issued regular tickets right off the bat," Topolniski said. "Generally our practice is to issue warning tickets so folks can get educated in that fashion."

"All officers are now aware of these enforcement practices." 

After the tickets and lack of public notice caused an uproar, Topolniski says the Winnipeg Parking Authority will undertake an extensive review of parking enforcement practices. 

"I'm not going to mince words, that's certainly an operational failure on our part," Topolniski said. "That review will be done ASAP and we'll provide some recommendations we can put forward in front of council so we can have this resolved once and for all." 

Until the review is complete, the city will switch back to the original practice of offering two complimentary hours of parking before payment between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays.