The City of Hamilton’s new six-month Sunday parking enforcement pilot program began on March 29, 2026, and will run until September 29, 2026.
The city says that the aim of the program is to “help make streets safer and parking fair for everyone.”
Previously, the city only conducted parking enforcement Monday through Saturday.
The pilot program will operate on Sundays between 5:45 a.m. and 10 p.m., a time that the city says has been a “long-standing gap in service.”
Enforcement will reportedly be complaint-based only, so by-law officers will only respond to resident concerns and “will not be proactively ticketing,” according to a statement by the city.
However, the statement appears to indicate that proactive ticketing could also be in the future, noting that, for now, the complaint-based approach “allows the community to adjust.”
During the first two weeks of enforcement, city officials say that they issued more than $7,000 in fines.
The city says that the pilot aims to keep sidewalks, driveways, laneways, bike lanes, and streets clear for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, improve customer service responses, and gather data on demand, costs, operations, and community response.
The findings and city staff’s recommendations will be reported to the Planning Committee in late 2026 and will be used to “inform decisions about potential future seven-day-a-week parking enforcement.”
Residents can report a parking concern by calling 905-546-2489 (CITY).
The city’s Parking Enforcement Section will utilize existing Parking Control Officer staff and existing overtime resources to provide the Sunday enforcement.
The city’s Customer Contact Centre will charge-back Parking Enforcement for all support and activities associated with the pilot, using the revenue generated.
Parking Control staff and the Customer Contact Centre representative have an upper limit of a gross operating cost of about $151,000, but the program is not expected to cost the city at all due to the revenue generated.
Over the six months, the city says that Parking Enforcement staff will fulfil an additional 156 shifts, representing 1,209 working hours, which is estimated to cost approximately $101,000.
According to the latest data, in 2025, the City of Hamilton Parking Enforcement Section had an employee-related cost budget of $4.4 million and was forecasted to issue $5.4 million in parking penalties.
Although it remains to be seen what the data will indicate for Sunday enforcement, on Saturdays alone, the city received an average of 80-120 complaints in 2025.
The city’s Transportation Planning and Parking Team says that they consulted with the city’s Business Development Team and the Business Improvement Areas’ staff to gain a sense of support for Sunday enforcement.
Concerns were expressed that the enforcement of paid parking rules is “viewed as a barrier to incentivize visitors to Business Improvement Areas.”
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
