This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive.

Toys For Tickets Program: Red Deer Is Allowing Drivers To Pay Their Parking Fines With Christmas Toys

City Wants You To Pay Your Parking Fines With Christmas Toys
Getty

For the only time ever, paying a parking ticket may actually feel good, thanks to Red Deer's Toys for Tickets program.

The premise is as simple as unwrapping a present on Christmas morning.

Anyone who receives a parking ticket in the central Alberta city, between Nov. 1 and Dec. 6 will have the option of paying the fine with toys.

"It will assist the 2013 Red Deer Christmas Bureau in meeting its goal that no child wakes up without a toy on Christmas morning," according to a City of Red Deer press release.

But there are rules the rule-breakers lining up to pay the fine must follow.

Story continues below slideshow

Diet Cookbook

Gifts You Should Never Give

The price of the toy must be of equal or greater value than the price of the ticket and a receipt for the toy must be presented when settling the fine.

The toy must be unwrapped, new and in its original packaging.

The city is also asking the toys be geared towards kids between the ages of eight and 16 and recommends items such as fishing rods, cars and trucks, sleeping bags, mp3 players, DVD players, games, puzzles and books, and hockey sticks.

What the city doesn't want is glue or war toys.

The program was launched seven years ago and has been a huge success, spawning similar initiatives in St. Albert, Alta., and Vancouver, according to CBC.

Toys for Tickets saw 414 fines paid with toys last year and has received more than 3,300 toys since its inception, the Edmonton Journal states.

Close
This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.