Lloydminster ticketing jumps after city shifts away from photo radar

The increased enforcement has also come with a financial trade-off.

When the restructuring was proposed, the city estimated it could save between $40,000 and $100,000 in 2025, with potentially greater savings in 2026.

The one-year review instead found the change increased costs by about $67,000. The city says increased ticket revenue from RCMP and Community Peace Officers reduces the financial impact of the restructuring to about $35,000 annually.

“We do have some slight budget implications, but we do believe those will subside over time as we navigate our prosecution systems better,” DeGruchy said.

The overhaul followed changes to Alberta’s automated traffic enforcement rules that reduced Lloydminster’s approved photo radar locations from 66 to six. The city determined continuing to dedicate resources to the program was no longer an effective use of those resources.

In July 2025, the city restructured its automated traffic enforcement resources into two bylaw enforcement officer positions, initially assigning one to traffic bylaws and the other to community standards.

That put more attention on issues residents encounter in their neighbourhoods and downtown, including unsightly properties, vacant structures, two-hour parking restrictions, trailer parking, accessible stalls, fire lanes and improper parking in cul-de-sacs.

DeGruchy said having bylaw officers take on time-intensive files has freed Community Peace Officers to conduct higher-level enforcement, including traffic investigations and monitoring, while reducing some demands on RCMP.

Unsightly-premises files increased from 183 to 240 year over year.

DeGruchy said the city has heard positive feedback about that work, particularly in northeast Lloydminster, where enforcement has focused on vacant structures and unsightly properties.

He also clarified that the increased customer satisfaction referenced in the city’s written review largely relates to unsightly-property enforcement rather than parking.

“I think I should change the wording there because I didn’t get a lot of great feedback on the parking tickets.”

He said the city is now working in other priority neighbourhoods and using programs such as neighbourhood revitalization to encourage property owners to address problems rather than relying solely on tickets.

The workload has also affected how the two bylaw officers are deployed. DeGruchy said one has been inundated with unsightly-premises and vacant-structure files, while an absence in the other position affected traffic-bylaw enforcement for part of the summer.

The city has since backfilled that position with a term employee and is directing more attention toward traffic enforcement.

That includes downtown, where DeGruchy said an initial parking enforcement blitz resulted in complaints from employees who had traditionally parked in storefront spaces.

He said the city subsequently saw parking habits change and a “relatively high level of compliance.” Enforcement resources were later reassigned to other areas, however, and some of those parking habits have started returning.

“We know we need to blitz it downtown again,” DeGruchy said.

He said a city parking feasibility study found there is significant parking available downtown, but 50th Avenue is overused while surrounding areas and some parking lots are underused.

Bylaw ticket revenue has also come in below the city’s expectations.

DeGruchy said a Canadian Union of Postal Workers strike prevented the city from mailing certain parking tickets for a period, resulting in lost revenue. Changes to Alberta’s prosecution system have also required municipal staff to spend more time handling court processes previously dealt with by provincial Crown prosecutors.

Lloydminster’s position on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border creates another enforcement hurdle.

Bylaw officers can access licence-plate information needed to identify registered vehicle owners in Saskatchewan. In Alberta, bylaw officers cannot access that information and must rely on a Community Peace Officer or someone with higher authorization.

Mayor Gerald Aalbers suggested council could consider raising the restriction through Alberta Municipalities as a provincewide issue rather than one unique to Lloydminster.

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Kenneth.Cheung@pattisonmedia.com

by Kenneth Cheung

Lloydminster ticketing jumps after city shifts away from photo radar

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