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Imagine leaving a show at the Warehouse Theatre, stepping into the rain at 10:30 p.m., only to find your car is gone. You’re across from City Hall, in a neighbourhood so unsafe that just the night before, the area MLA and the chief of police held a Town Hall to hear residents’ concerns. On the sidewalk are signs few noticed, quietly declaring “No Parking After 8 p.m.” — and now your car has been towed. You’re left figuring out how to reach the towing compound, only to stand in line with 50 other frustrated people trying to reclaim their vehicles.

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It’s not exactly something you’ll find in the Visitors Guide to Downtown Winnipeg. But it’s straight out of the Winnipeg Parking Authority’s playbook — and after yet another towing fiasco in the Exchange District on April 16, it’s time City Hall called in senior managers and asked them to bring that playbook to the coach’s office.

Although their corporate jargon speaks of vehicle owners as valued customers, the organization has not held a Town Hall to face the public since 2012. That year, they scheduled an event on three days’ notice, but Exchange District stakeholders found out. They showed up and forced the WPA to ditch a plan to enact paid nighttime parking targeting theatre and nightclub patrons and visitors to the area residents.

Since then, the WPA has never faced the public they serve, or stopped finding ways to lighten the wallets of unsuspecting drivers.

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