As if a parking or speeding ticket isn't bad enough, you could soon be getting a surcharge on top of it.
The province has quietly started charging fees for access to its database.
The city of Calgary and Calgary police say, between them, it will mean an extra $10 million dollars a year. And they're going to have to make it up somehow.
When the provincial budget came down, buried deep in the fine print was a change in the province's data base system.
Municipalities used to have free access every time the parking authority or police checked a licence plate or driver's licence.
But beginning April 1, Service Alberta started charging a $15 -fee for every check because running the system was getting too costly.
In Calgary, the new fees will amount to nearly $10 million annually between police and the city.
And the mayor says the city can't afford it.
"Our only option now is to pass it on to people that are getting tickets as a $15-surcharge. I would prefer it if we could come to a better solution with the province," said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
That means a $40 illegal parking fine will be $55.
The fees will also apply to speeding tickets. But police commission board chair Mike Shaikh says right now they can't just tack on the fee to tickets.
He says adding the surcharge to speeding tickets will have to be approved through provincial legislation.
Shaikh has written to the premier asking for the fee to be reversed, otherwise there will have to be cuts to the police budget.
The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation is also critical of the fees.
Alberta director Scott Hennig says governments charging other governments fees is a big waste of time and money.
