Sarnia council has approved a unique partnership that will let people pay parking tickets with an unwrapped toy or gift card before Christmas.
General Manager of Community Services Stacey Forfar told council Monday, "Toys for Tickets" is a common program in other cities.
"This was a staff idea that kind of bubbled up," said Forfar. "I've worked in several other municipalities where it's a fairly common program to do at the end of the year, so I'm familiar with it. Our team certainly had a lot of enthusiasm to bring this to the city this year and give it a shot."
Toys will be accepted, for children from newborn to the age of 18, from December 1 to December 15.
Councillor Brian White supports the initiative.
"It's outside the box thinking," said White. "In a strange year, to say the least, I think it behooves us to be as creative as possible and try and find ways to give back and for this particular cause, and this particular issue, I have zero hesitation in supporting this."
Councillor Terry Burrell felt otherwise.
"I guess I'm going to play The Grinch," said Burrell. "I think it's a very bad idea. There are a million different, wonderful stories around the city, that would love to have some city money go to support them. My suggestion on all of these is that if they want to get in line for money, there's a process we have for budgeting and they can come at budget time where they can compete against everybody else to get the city dollars."
All of the donations will go to families in need through a partnership with the Sarnia-Lambton United Way.
The value of the toy must equal or exceed the amount owing on the parking ticket, which ranges from $20 to $50.
The program does not include tickets for parking in an accessible zone, which carry a fine of $300.