If you clean out your wallet by plunking all your dimes and nickels into parking meters, your coins will be no good in New West in 2023.
Starting in the new year, motorists will no longer get one minute of parking for each nickel and two minutes of parking for each dime at parking meters in the city that still accept coins. Quarters will be good for four minutes of parking (instead of five minutes) in the downtown, uptown and Sapperton areas and for five minutes of parking (instead of six minutes) at other meters in the city.
An increase in parking meter rates in uptown, downtown and Sapperton – from a $3.25 to a $3.50 hourly rate, which includes a 25 cent climate emergency fund surcharge – is among of a number of fees approved by council on Monday as part of the city’s 2023 budget.
At its Aug. 29 meeting, council had given in-principle approval to increases to a variety of fees in the engineering, cultural services, and climate action, planning and development departments, as well as the electrical utility.
“Changes proposed by departments are based on comparative data with other municipalities or industry, analysis specific to the service provided or an estimated rate of inflation,” said an Aug. 29 staff report. “The estimated rate of inflation used for this review is 2.4 per cent based on the targeted inflation from the Bank of Canada monetary policy report and is inline with the federal government’s inflation targeting strategy.”
At Monday’s meeting, Coun. Chuck Puchmayr expressed concern about increases to parking permit fees. He cited Sapperton as a particular area of concern, saying the ongoing hospital expansion project is exacerbating parking issues in that neighbourhood.
“There are many seniors that live there that have loved ones that come to visit,” he said. “There are people that are struggling financially in those areas.”
Puchmayr said seniors are “sort of trapped” and have to use their cars as a mobility device and as device of convenience.
“On the next council, I'd like to revisit the parking,” he said. “So, I'll support all the fees, but I am averse to the increase in the parking permit fees.”
The annual parking permit fee for a first and second residential parking permit is going from $33 to $44 (includes the 10 per cent climate action levy). An annual parking permit fee for a visitor parking permit (maximum one per household) is also rising from $33 to $44, while a book of five day-use visitor parking permits is increasing from $26 to $30.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone said he’d support the bylaw as recommended by staff because the city is partway through a multi-year program on adjusting parking rates. If council wants to make changes to that policy, he said it should be done for 2024.
“I think, at this point, it's important that we support the bylaw and that we have clarity for our budgeting purposes for staff so they know what's going on in the next year for our revenues,” he said. “And I look forward to having a deeper discussion about parking after this. But I think, as part of this bylaw, we really should be should be leaving this bylaw as it is.”
Staff say the increases to parking permit rates, parking meter and pay station rates are in keeping with the “five-year approach to on-street parking fees and rates” that was endorsed by council in 2019.
Not just parking
Other fees going up in 2023 include some animal services licensing, impound and maintenance rates. As an example, the annual license fee for a male or female dog is going from $36 to $37.
Fees at Fraser Cemetery are also rising 2.4 per cent, meaning the internment fee is going from $1,235 to $1,286 for an adult casket, from $730 to $760 for a veteran casket and from $695 to $724 for a non-resident child/infant casket.
Street occupancy fees are also among the services on the rise, with the cost of a street occupancy permit for street festival increasing from $155 per block to $159 for a street festival and $38.25 per block to $39 for a parade. The daily cost for a block party is going from $38.25 to $39 per day.
In May, city council endorsed a framework and timelines for the 2023 budget. That plan included having the current city council approve 2023 user fee rate increases before the Oct. 15 civic election and having the new council deal with the city’s operational budget.
