Toronto and East York Community Council is moving to bring overnight permit parking to almost every local road in their jurisdictions.

The change would mean residents and visitors who choose to park on the street at night will need to obtain a parking permit or will risk being ticketed.

The current parking bylaw allows for cars to be parked for a maximum of three hours in one spot. However, people leave their cars parked for longer because the bylaw isn’t enforced at night, according to Kristyn Wong-Tam's website.

"Parking Enforcement relies on complaints to generate enforcement action. Once a complaint is received Parking Enforcement will “blitz” a street and hand out tickets until such time that the officers are satisfied that enforcement is no longer needed," Reads the councillor's parking resources. 

The new permits aim to make parking in the East York area more fair, by ensuring that people who purchase permits have places to park their vehicles.

However, for non-permit holders, the change means it will be harder to find a parking spot on streets in Toronto. Eight wards will be affected by the proposed parking plan.

East York Community Council began the process of spreading permit parking right across their district years ago, and are hoping to expand overnight parking to include about 235,000 more kilometres of roadway, or about 21,000 additional parking spaces.

A city report indicates that spreading overnight permit parking to almost all downtown roads could generate about $1.7 million annually. 

According to CBC News, at meeting of the Toronto and East York Community Council on December 3, about half a dozen residents lined up to speak out against the plan.