New towing rules will hit Oakville streets – and parking lots – starting in early 2025.
Town council has approved a new bylaw that goes into effect on Feb. 28, 2025, with the goal of regulating how and when vehicles can be towed from private and municipal property, to crack down on what has been described as predatory towing.
The problem has been particularly acute in the Bronte area, with spotters sending tow trucks to hook up improperly parked cars within minutes of people leaving the Centriller Square lot, even during evening hours when nearby businesses are closed.
But a half dozen local business owners attended the Dec. 16 council meeting to urge politicians not to adopt the new bylaw. They argued that trespassing, not towing, is the real problem.
Claudio Serrao, owner of Monaghan’s Sports Pub and Grill, told councillors that Sheridan students, Uber drivers and Ribfest attendees regularly fill up the parking lot of the plaza where his restaurant is located.
As a result, a parking authority has been hired to watch people parking and immediately tow the cars of anyone leaving the property. Serrao estimated that between 10 and 15 cars a day are towed off the lot.
“There’s no time limit you need to be there to trespass,” he said. “If you’re not conducting business on the property, then you’re trespassing.”
That argument caused councillors to slightly soften the proposed bylaw by requiring property owners to wait only 30 minutes before towing, rather than an initially suggested 60 minutes.
Ward 1 councillor Sean O’Meara argued that the new bylaw balances concerns of property and vehicle owners.
“This is not taking away any private property owner’s ability to tow vehicles,” he said. “It’s setting rules about how that happens, it’s setting expectations and guidelines so that people know that the first thing you do is get a fine, and after that you can get towed.”
He said the town has spent more than eight years making “every attempt possible to rein in what is the wild west of what tow trucks can do to people” including leaving women and children on the street at midnight, charging extra money from vehicle owners and demanding payment in cash.
The new bylaw will ensure “everyone understands the playing field and you don’t have seniors or people walking off thinking, oh, I’m just going to grab a coffee and not even having the time to run back to their vehicle before it’s gone,” O'Meara added.
“But writ large, across this town, the act of predatory towing – where you are actively seeking to take someone’s vehicle, rightly or wrongly, without any guardrails around it – has to stop.”
Ticketing and 30-minute delay before towing
The new rules require:
- Illegally parked cars to receive a $50 ticket issued by either a town parking officer or a person designated by the town to police a property on behalf of the owner.
- Property owners must then seek approval to tow from a town authority and wait at least 30 minutes after ticketing before towing
- Halton police must be informed of the tow prior to it occurring.
- Tow and storage fees must not exceed an established fee schedule communicated to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and posted online. Vehicle owners must be permitted to pay in a variety of usual ways.
- A hooking fee – charged when a tow truck has started to hook up a vehicle but has not yet left the lot with it – may not exceed $150.
- Immediate tows are permitted in exceptional circumstances, including for vehicles blocking laneways, loading docks or driveways, or parked in fire routes or construction zones.
- Rules apply to both private and municipal parking lots and land.
The bylaw received the support of the Bronte BIA, which represents the commercial district in Bronte Village.
“Towing has overshadowed Bronte’s overall reputation as a welcoming waterfront retail destination,” said Kylie Wilson, executive director of the BIA.
Aggressive towing practices have spurred damaging boycott movements and forced business owners to invest in signage and hire additional staff just to warn customers about parking rules, she said.
Wilson added that business owners are hoping the introduction of new rules will launch a new chapter for Bronte.