A local man trying to follow the money at Prince George's City Hall was shocked to discover the sizable sum he would have to shell out himself.
Walter Shelest filed a Freedom of Information request last spring with the municipality to find out how much money the city brought in for parking infractions in his area of Edmonton Street and 12th Avenue during 2009 and 2010.
But he won't be getting the answer since it turns out the city's set fee schedule for completing Freedom of Information requests would cost him around $1,433.60 - a price he's unwilling to pay.
"It was really rather shocking to me to see that," Shelest told The Citizen.
The fee could be excused if the person filing the request is unable to pay due to financial constraints.
Shelest made the request after putting up with what he calls a disastrous parking situation along his section of Edmonton Street during the construction of the cancer centre.
With inadequate space at the health centre, overflow parking spills onto the street and Shelest often sees those who have come to visit loved ones end up with the fines.
He approached the city to see if something could be done to keep cars from being ticketed.
"I phoned the city and they said they can't paint city curbs because they have no money," Shelest said.
(Calls to city operations were not returned by press time.)
That prompted him to to wonder about the money coming in from all of the cars receiving tickets on a regular basis. But when he asked for this information, he was told to file a Freedom of Information request.
"I don't think that's a matter of Freedom of Information either," he said, considering the issue doesn't deal with a lawsuit, personal information or financial negotiations.
"I think the city's totally out of control at the moment," Shelest said.
Despite the fact Shelest didn't follow through on his request, the city's Freedom of Information co-ordinator Walter Babicz said the cost of filing is not meant to keep people out.
"Fees are not intended to be prohibitive, and the fee schedule under the [provincial] Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act has not been amended since 1993," Babicz said.
According to the act, fees can be charged for locating, retrieving, producing, preparing, copying and shipping a record, but they can't be charged for the first three hours of the work.
In response to Shelest's request, Babicz estimated it would take 42.5 hours to complete the task, at a cost of $30 per hour plus applicable taxes.
City staff complete these requests on top of their regular duties, he said.
Bylaw services manager Guy Gusdal said Shelest could have received a rough ballpark figure based on how many tickets are issues, the value of those notices and the average of how many get paid.
"I could tell you 'Here's what we probably got,' but if you want specifics, it's going to take a lot of time," Gusdal said.
Getting an exact figure is "something that takes a fair bit of time to be accurate," said Gusdal.
It requires accessing the city's electronic records of tickets issued and then cross-referencing them with the paper records of tickets which have been sent to collections, he said.
"It's a very meticulous and detailed thing."
When parking tickets are paid - typically around $25 if they are not sent to summons - the money goes to help offset for the parking control unit, Gusdal said.
There are multiple issues with parking in that particular area, he said, and "the amount of construction has not helped the previous issues there."
However making the case that changes need to be made to the parking structure along the street right now is a "knee-jerk reaction," said Gusdale.
"Once the cancer centre is complete and construction is done we'll take a look at who are the users there and we'll come up with options."
Those options will then be discussed with area neighbours and be taken to council.
These solutions will likely be some form of signage, as painting curbs is ineffective during the winter months.
