New look for parking compliance officers

The Canadian Corps of Commissionaires will no longer write parking tickets for the City of Winnipeg as of Saturday, after more than a half century of service.

A British firm, G4S Security, has been awarded the parking enforcement contract by the Winnipeg Parking Authority. The commissionaires suffered from a 30 per cent staffing shortage in 2007, and that cost the City of Winnipeg $1 million in lost revenue.

"The parking authority is willing to look at things outside the box, how can we do it differently, how can we be perceived differently by the public as opposed to the parking bandits out there," said Thor Goodmanson, district manager for G4S Security in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

The city said the change from the commissionaires, who have been writing parking tickets in Winnipeg for 55 years, will be seamless. Some of the faces will be the same, since many former commissionaires have been hired as compliance officers by the new company.

But one difference people will notice immediately is the uniform, said Goodmanson.

The commissionaires' military-style uniforms will give way to G4S Securitys neon green or yellow jackets in the winter and polo shirts in the summer.

In 2007, the Winnipeg Parking Authority collected $5.2 million in revenue from parking enforcement. The G4S contract, meanwhile, will cost the city $2.03 million.