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Our Toronto parking enforcement source, “Mr. Accountability”, has tipped us off regarding another scandal involving Hogtown’s meter maids. The ongoing controversy is the time theft issue.

The so-called “green hornets” are supposed to put in a 10-hour shift but they call it quits after eight hours on the job (or less.) And yes, we have the video evidence.

Note: the time theft was a costing taxpayers almost $6 million per year. Now comes another eyebrow-raising story: with the FIFA World Cup staging some of its games in Hogtown, the City of Toronto believes a bonanza beckons in terms of parking tickets.

So a demand has gone out to have the meter maids put in 13 hour shifts. Just one hitch: this supposedly violates the collective agreement. And this also allegedly means that if an officer is injured on the job, there will be no compensation via the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Uh oh…

We reached out to the Toronto Police Association. Here is their statement: “With respect to FIFA, there are no mandatory callbacks for Parking Enforcement, and the longest voluntary callback is 13 hours, which is within the Employment Standards Act. No matter the length of the callback – or regular shift, for that matter – Parking Enforcement employees are covered by WSIB if they are injured while performing their job duties, no exceptions.

“We would also be remiss not to mention our concerns about your ongoing harassment of our members at Parking Enforcement. We fully respect your right to be on public property and to report on issues in a fair and democratic way; however, we believe this can be accomplished without repeatedly approaching them for comment. If you have any additional questions or further comments, please come to us.”

We do appreciate the TPA for getting back to us, something corporate communications at the Toronto Police Service refuses to do. However, our source tells us that a 13 hour shift is only supposed to happen under exceptional circumstances (I.e., a parade.) A shift of this length is not meant to be an almost daily occurrence.

In the final analysis, we yet again have a he said/she said scenario regarding policing. The question is: who do YOU believe?