Coming into downtown Toronto for a night can add up quickly, especially with the inflated cost of living at the moment, and some $30 an hour in parking is just part of the equation of what you'll need to spend if you are heading to the city (but don't you dare complain about costs to anyone who actually lives here).

If you're a seasoned professional though, you'll know that risking a parking ticket makes more financial sense than paying the fee for some local lots — or at least, it used to be, but that's about to change now that the city has caught onto the tactic.

The standard penalty for illegally parking in an off-street lot is $30, an amount that the city is looking to increase — and not by a meagre amount, either — to dissuade more people from dodging the parking kiosk.

A new report from Transportation Services is urging city council to more than double this fine amount to $75, which would "better align the penalty amounts relative to parking rates."

"This is in line with previously approved penalty amount increases for similar parking violations within 'Green P' carparks [and] is intended to encourage compliance in purchasing a ticket to park on municipal/ private property," the letter prefaces before diving into the numbers that indeed indicate parking rates and penalties for non-payment across the city actually encourage parking without paying.

In some cases, like during special events at Exhibition Place, a violation notice is up to $15 cheaper than paying the posted rate, if you even get caught at all.

"There have been many instances where motor vehicle owners will park in a municipal or private parking facility and decide that, rather than paying the posted parking rates at a parking kiosk, they would prefer taking their chances with incurring a parking violation notice or, if lucky, avoid a parking violation notice altogether."

Compliance has become an increasingly concerning issue for authorities, who are handing out a growing number of tickets each year — 106,250 in municipal lots and 377,293 in private lots in 2022 alone, which doesn't account for the many others who didn't pay but managed to evade a citation.

If approved, the new amounts would be implemented by December 1, 2023, and could be extended to on-street parking violations, too.