Not a single ticket has been issued for idling in Toronto in the last five years. And it’s unlikely drivers will receive the $130 fine anytime soon.
The reason?
There’s no longer proactive enforcement of Toronto’s anti-idling bylaw because of limited resources, according to a report that went before the city’s infrastructure and environment committee last week.
“It’s outrageous,” said Coun. Dianne Saxe, a member of the committee.
“If we have bylaws — especially bylaws for public health — and then we don’t do anything to enforce them, we make a mockery of the law and we undercut public trust in the government.”
Toronto was the first Canadian municipality to implement an anti-idling bylaw in 1996 to reduce unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
In 2010, the bylaw was amended to shorten the maximum idling time from three minutes to one and remove several exemptions. Back then, council also wanted to improve enforcement and directed staff to come up with a plan with police for parking officers start enforcing the bylaw.
But parking officers never took on enforcement.
Instead, the city now relies entirely on a complaints-based system where it’s up to the public to report idling vehicles to 311. Then staff send the registered owner a warning letter with information on the harms of idling and on potential fines.
System based on limited resources
“Municipalities have struggled and struggled to get police to play that enforcement role,” said Gaby Kalapos, executive director of Clean Air Partnership, a non-profit that supports municipalities with climate actions, including anti-idling.
“They’ve gone to the complaints-based system just because that’s the solution available to them based on the limited resources they have.”
CBC Toronto asked the city for details on what happened with council’s 2010 direction to develop a plan for police parking officers to start enforcing the bylaw, but the city said the question would be best addressed by police.
In an email, a Toronto police spokesperson said the service doesn’t have information on the 2010 decision, or if any discussions were had, but confirmed that parking enforcement officers have never issued bylaw tickets for idling.
Before 2011, the city ran idling enforcement blitzes in May and September each year, alongside its complaints-based system. The last proactive enforcement efforts were in 2019 when 29 tickets were issued, according to the report which responded to a council request from 2021 for details on how the city was enforcing the anti-idling bylaw.
From the time of the last ticket to the end of 2023, the city received at least 2,167 complaints and issued at least 1,783 warnings.
In a statement, the city said warning letters have proven to be an effective deterrent because complaints stop once they are issued and more than 2,100 anti-idling signs also contribute to compliance. The report says about 25 new signs are installed each year in high-complaint areas or in response to councillor requests.
Councillor wants data on repeat offenders
Saxe questioned staffers at committee on whether they were tracking repeat offenders, who the top offenders are, and which areas of the city are seeing the most idling complaints, but they didn’t have answers.
“The big problem is the big diesel trucks and the construction vehicles, which tend to be the most polluting,” said Saxe.
“What we should be doing is figuring out from this database of the 1,783 warnings that they’ve issued … who are the worst offenders? Get a meeting with those companies, ask them what they’re doing about it and pay more attention to those.”
At committee, a motion from Saxe recommended that city council direct staff to report back in the fall on how to enhance enforcement and compliance when it comes to diesel trucks.
That recommendation — alongside two others concerning reporting and sharing city fleet idling data — will go before council later this month.
