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City council has approved a change to parking in the city.
They approved new parking enforcement hours for on-street short-term meter parking at Monday night’s city council meeting.
Prior to the change, short-term meter rates were in effect Monday to Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The new enforcement hours are from Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. lowering daily enforcement times by five hours a day.
“Effective (Tuesday) morning, we will only enforce metered parking during the new timings within the resolution while we move towards changing all of the signage and the bylaw amendments that will happen in the new year,” explained City Manager John Collin.
The adjustment was unanimously approved and multiple councillors highlighted that they have heard complaints from numerous residents.
McKellar Ward Councillor Brian Hamilton proposed the change and highlighted that he feels this is what the community is looking for.
“It’s a modest change I think and I know there will be a a financial impact,” said Hamilton. “I believe that this is truly the collective will of this council, so that’s why I’m presenting it.”
The new parking hours have only been in place since June so administration could only estimate financial implications.
“We will have to go back and revisit the operating budget that we have been working on,” said the General Manager of Corporate Services and City Treasurer, Keri Greaves. “We believe the Monday to Saturday evening Revenue for (the city’s charted September to November data) is about $41,000, so if you were to extrapolate that at this point we’re looking at about a $200,000 decrease in revenue.”
However, that decrease should not impact residents.
“What we estimate, and it is just an estimate of what the loss in revenue would be for the coming year,” added Collin. “I still believe we will be coming to you with an operating budget that satisfies the mandate of 3.8 (per cent), but what we do not know is the longer-term effects.”
There may not be any more changes to parking in 2025 but there could be in 2026 and beyond.
Administration needs more information to guide the future of parking.
“We need at least a year under our belt, four seasons of operation to determine exactly what our revenue in parking can be moving forward, and then from that we will need to return to Council with our evaluation as to whether or not parking is sustainable moving forward or where council will need to consider additional measures.”
Parking in Thunder Bay saw a big change in June.
New regulations including expanded parking enforcement hours and paid parking at the waterfront went into effect to help parking become more profitable and sustainable.
“As councillors, we own this, we passed it, now we want to backpedal and we have to own this as well,” said McIntyre Ward Councillor, Albert Aiello. “I think just from community feedback again, my perspective only I think maybe possibly a little too much all at one time. You know from paid parking where there was none at the Marina to paid parking now, to extended hours on weekends, maybe it’s just a little too much.”
He added that numerous people have approached him to discuss evening parking.
“We don’t think about this stuff, but you know, young children going to hockey practice at the gardens,” said Aiello. “The Gardens is our only city rink that you have to pay for parking and it does make a difference. I know there’s teams that don’t want ice time at the gardens because they don’t want to incur that additional cost”
Over the past few years, the parking authority’s finances have been an issue.
Access to the Safe Restart funds and the Stabilization Reserve Fund was crucial in ensuring the Parking Reserve Fund was not fully depleted.
This sparked changes to the city’s parking financial approach.
