OHTA.ca

4. (e) a vehicle that is required to remain motionless due to an emergency, traffic or weather condition or mechanical difficulty over which the operator of the vehicle has no control;

EXEMPTIONS

4. Section 3 of this By-law does not apply to:

(a) a mobile workshop while such vehicle is being used as a mobile

workshop;

(b) a vehicle assisting in an emergency activity;

(c) the idling of a vehicle for the purpose of servicing the vehicle;

(d) an armoured vehicle carrying cash which is in the course of being loaded

or unloaded;

(e) a vehicle that is required to remain motionless due to an emergency, traffic

or weather condition or mechanical difficulty over which the operator of

the vehicle has no control;

Orillia's bylaw, three-minute limit:

Sure, you can probably convince a JP that you were just idling for winter conditions, but if that's what you were really doing, know that fuel injected cars should NOT be warmed up by idling. Idling is a thing of the past for modern cars, as it was required only for carbureted cars which needed the warmth to maintain proper air-fuel mixture. Idling a fuel injected car has no benefits other than a warm interior for those who don't wear thick enough coats. It unevenly wears the connecting rod bearings, contaminates the oil with unburnt fuel, and does not warm up your transmission, suspension, and wheel bearings. The car also runs in open loop much longer, creating much more emissions and wasting your fuel. Fuel injected cars should be left to "idle" until the initial RPM spike falls to within 500 RPM of idle speed, then warmed up by driving off gently until the temperature needle nears the middle mark. The most important thing to do is to warm up the engine and transmission oils. You can pour 200F engine oil into a -40 engine block and still get the same wear as a warmed up engine. If you have a block heater, plug it in for one hour before your trip for every ten degrees below zero (e.g., three hours for -30 weather). That's my general guideline for a V6 engine, you may have to use longer times for V8s. I keep an outdoor timer in the car to always be able to set the time regardless of location.

Ottawa has this by-law also. http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/bylaw/a_z/idling_en.html

I agree with the above post but keep in mind that in some cases where the insides of the windows have become frosted or foggy, you would need to let that clear up with the defroster and the vehicle running. But there are subsections to the law allowing this.

Toronto: 3 minutes.

Orangeville: 3 minutes

Windsor: 5 minutes in a 60 minute period

Toronto is now revised to: 1 MINUTE!?

TTC already said they could not comply because if they need to idle the buses for 3 minutes before turning them off, otherwise they'll blow the turbocharger. Council didn't care. Of course, this was passed with the last City Council in power, which did everything humanly possible to make travelling across the city as painless as a root canal.