Transportation: Parking
[ On-Street Parking | Tickets & Towing | Parking Lots ]
If you drive, where to park is always an issue. Unlike most cities, parking in downtown Sault Ste. Marie is relatively easy; the city has many on-street parking metres and three municipal lots. Be sure to have a roll of loonies ($1 coins) and quarters on hand to pay for the empty metre you find. Outside the downtown core parking is not only plentiful but expected.
On-Street Parking
Downtown, expect to feed the standard parking meters, which cost $1 per hour. The City of Sault Ste. Marie polices its street and metered parking with standard $10 parking tickets (which escalates to $15 if not paid within 5 days). Metres are in operation from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm.
Do not attempt to park in a tour bus loading zone, within 5 metres (yards) of a fire hydrant, alley, driveway, or intersection. You WILL be ticketed.
Parking Lots
There are a number of parking lots in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. Parking in Sault Ste. Marie comes in three flavours: surface, above ground, and underground.
There are three municipal parking lots in Sault Ste. Marie, as well as private lots for most office buildings.
Tickets & Towing
In Sault Ste. Marie, the city passes the parking bylaws and does the enforcement. The general policy is to issue a ticket, but not to tow, except in unusual circumstances. Towing is done by the company that has towing contract with the Region (which changes from year to year) and your vehicle is taken to their towing & impound lot. You will have to pay the towing (and any storage) charges before your car will be released.
If you fail to appear in court then you are found guilty in absence and an additional fine of $20.00 is added to the outstanding ticket. You can get also arrested for "Failure to Appear in Court" at which time you will be asked to pay your outstanding fines...or else stay a while... Usually the police are quite nice and often drive you by your local friendly instant teller on the way to the police station. But even if you happen to be lucky enough to evade the police ... the city will eventually collect its dues when you go to renew your driver's license or vehicle registration. You must first pay the entire sum of your outstanding fine(s) before getting your renewal. If you get a city parking ticket, we suggest you just pay it.
Should you happen to receive a parking ticket issued by anyone of the private parking companies around town and do not pay it in the stipulated time, then it will most likely make its way to a city collection company (we have yet to be contacted by anyone of these companies). If you continue to violate the parking regulations on any of their lots then they may tow your car to their impound lot.
If you have any questions about your parking tickets, please call the City at (705) 759-5320.
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