The disabled face enough challenges in life without having to deal with able-bodied people who manage to obtain handicapped parking permits. These special permits give the disabled the right to park in specially designated parking spaces in shopping malls and other public parking lots, in addition to allowing them to park on the streets of Toronto for free. There 2 types of disabled parking permits – temporary and permanent. The temporary permits are usually given to people whose disability is a short term condition – post surgery or during the rehabilitation of an injury, while the permanent ones can apply to many conditions or illnesses. It is estimated that there are currently 470,000 temporary and permanent permits in use. And, abuse is rampant.

There are several ways that the province is attempting to end the disabled parking permit scams. Temporary permits are now issued for 12 months instead of 24. It has been suggested that these temporary permits should be done away with completely and that only people with serious long-term disabilities should qualify for a disabled parking permit. Interim permits are now issued for 2 months, instead of 6 while the applications are in process. There are many who say that this is a drop in the bucket and until law enforcement agencies get seriously involved, that there won’t be any significant improvement.

In New York City people seeking disabled parking permits must have a physician certify that there is a severe disability, and then this needs to be recertified by a New York City department of health physician. At the moment the only recourse that the city of Toronto has to deal with this problem is that parking ticket officers can investigate whether a permit belongs to the person using it. If the permit number is not registered to the driver or a disabled passenger using the vehicle, the person fraudulently using a disabled parking permit can be fined up to $5,000.

Do you know an able-bodied person who is using a disabled parking permit? What do you think should be done about it?