Parked at the Roadside, Got a $121 Ticket a Week Later: Gatineau Park Mailed Parking Tickets Raise Eyebrows

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, many Ottawa residents drove to Gatineau Park in Chelsea, Quebec, to see the fall colours. A week later, one driver received a $121 parking ticket — the car had been parked on the shoulder of Notch Road near Pink Lake (lac Pink), and the windshield was empty when he left.

No Ticket on the Car — It Arrived by Mail a Week Later

"Thanksgiving is a holiday — I just wanted a happy day out," the driver said. On the afternoon of October 12, parking lots around Pink Lake were full, and the shoulders on both sides of Notch Road were lined with parked cars. He pulled into an empty spot beyond the white line. "It was completely off the road. I thought the shoulder was there for visitors. Everyone else was parked there, so I followed." He admitted it was his first visit to Pink Lake and that he "didn't really check for no-parking signs." When he finished his hike and left, there was no ticket on the windshield. On October 19, the ticket arrived at his Ottawa home by mail. "What a way to end a holiday."

Driver: It felt like a deliberate trap

What troubled the driver most was the wide shoulder — his car sat completely clear of the roadway, and the spot looked as though it had been left there for visitors. “Out in the wild, on Thanksgiving Day — everyone figured the enforcement officers were off too. Once the first person parked, the rest saw the row of cars and thought they couldn't ticket all of us, so they followed.” To him, leaving space where people can park, banning it, and still ticketing on a holiday was nothing but “a trap set up for the sake of fines.”

The statement of offence was issued by the MRC des Collines regional municipal court under Quebec's Highway Safety Code, section 386 — parking where prohibited by signage: a $60 fine, $33 in fees and a $28 victims' fund contribution, for a total of $121. It was issued at 2:42 p.m. on October 12 at Chemin Notch, Chelsea.

Quebec and Ontario Do It Differently

Quebec has three standard ways to serve a statement of offence: hand it to the driver, place it on the windshield, or mail it to the registered vehicle owner — standard procedure listed by Éducaloi, Quebec's public legal information body, used year-round and not a holiday special. Ontario drivers, used to finding tickets on the windshield, are often caught off guard: no ticket when you drove away doesn't mean you weren't ticketed. Recipients have 30 days to pay or enter a not-guilty plea; missing the deadline can lead to a default conviction and extra fees.

Getting "the bill after the trip is over" is not new: in 2021, an Ontario visitor posted on TripAdvisor that he received a mailed ticket after visiting Gatineau Park, writing that he would "never come back."

Reminder: A Full Shoulder Doesn't Mean It's Legal to Park

During the fall-colour season, parking around Pink Lake, King Mountain and other popular spots is extremely tight. The National Capital Commission runs a free shuttle on fall weekends between downtown Ottawa and the park's main attractions. On roads where signs prohibit parking, following the row of cars already parked there brings the same ticket — and it may not arrive until a week later.