Enforcement vehicles parked at the College Canada Day ( photo credit: Facebook)

By Sheena Roszell

parade patrol

Enforcement responds to social media backlash after vehicle ticketed leaving Canada Day parade

Jul 3, 2019 | 11:58 AM

City Enforcement wants to assure people they were not camped out after the Canada Day parade handing out tickets.

Charlene Gallant with Enforcement Services said after the parade was finished, just one ticket was issued and that was because a child was not in a car seat.

“Can a child not be in a car seat during a parade? Absolutely. Would we ever write that ticket? Absolutely not. But after the parade, it switches back to regular rules of the road,” she explained. “Were our officers out there targeting people in the parade? The answer to that is no.”

Gallant says the parade had ended and a young child was belted in, but not in a proper car seat when the driver of the semi attempted to cross 108 Street from the GPRC parking lot.

“I think, at the end of the day from a City Enforcement perspective, that our priority is ensuring the safety of everybody, especially young children. By all means, our officers were not out there stopping everybody in the parade, during the parade.”

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A social media post that said otherwise quickly made its way around Grande Prairie on Monday. Gallant says officers were quite surprised to see how many people were commenting about them on social media.

“It’s tough for our officers to read that, they were like ‘What the heck is this all about?’ It was totally not a reflection at all of what they were doing, so it’s disheartening for them as well,” she said, adding “Good thing we have thick skin.”

A picture of the ticket that was handed out Monday (Photo credit: Facebook)

As for the company who received the ticket, a spokeswoman told our newsroom they would have appreciated a warning rather than the ticket and they plan on writing a letter to the Mayor.