The price of a parking ticket continues to be a hot topic within city council chambers.
Last week, on April 7, city staff proposed raising the price of parking tickets and traffic fees. For example, a ticket for an expired meter would go from $25 to $50, with early payment going from $10 to $35.
The rationale behind the price increase is to reflect the recent increase in parking fees: as part of the changes to the fees and charges bylaw, associated with the operations budget which passed earlier this year, parking meter fees were doubled from $0.25 for 15 minutes to $0.50 for the same time period.
The fee to park at the 6th and Main lot also increased to $1 an hour.
Under the current scheme for parking fees and fines, the early-payment fine for a ticket is cheaper than paying for parking all day at metered spots.
The parking fines in the city are also out of step with similar municipalities, according to the staff report. An increase would also improve compliance and parking management, per the report.
READ MORE: City of Whitehorse could hike parking, general traffic fines
At April 14’s city council meeting, Coun. Paolo Gallina asked that the updated price for parking meter tickets be lowered to $40, with early payment being $20. The early payment discount is only available for a ticket for an expired meter.
The adjusted price of $40 instead of $50 would apply for the following infractions: parking more than one metre away from the parking meter; parking at an expired meter; parking overtime at a metered spot (e.g., parking for three hours at a 2-hour parking meter, even if you’re plugging the metre throughout); and parking in the same block for longer than the prescribed period.
Initially, Gallina proposed that parking at the same block face should have the ticket price lowered to $40 as well, but Coun. Dan Boyd intervened, stating that to park at the same block face was a blatant bad-faith play, as opposed to an honest accident that could be made with the other infractions.
Council then voted to have that fine be removed from the list of infractions that would potentially get a $40 fine instead of a $50.
Then, Gallina’s motion to reduce the proposed fines for the four metered parking infractions passed with five votes in favour: Coun. Lenore Morris and Mayor Kirk Cameron voted against the motion.
Morris stated that she did not feel that the $20 discount offered by Gallina’s motion was large enough.
Cameron said it was overdue for the city to catch up with other municipalities across the country. Bylaw manager Elizabeth Beecroft told city council that the $50 tickets distributed by the City of Whitehorse would still be lower than the median and average tickets handed out across the country.
“From the comments that have come through the public, I've noticed a trend in essentially parking meter fines are essentially the cost to park downtown. They're not a deterrent to pay the meter,” said Beecroft.
Councillors said they received a great deal of public feedback on the issue, and delegate Bree Pepper told councillors that local businesses would suffer if parking fines increased.
Pepper, a local hair stylist, said that she and other hairdressers will often top up their customers’ meters as a courtesy during multi-hour appointments for hair processing and colouring.
Beecroft told councillors that topping up metres beyond the time limit has never been allowed per the traffic bylaw and that issuing tickets for cars parked longer than the time limit — even if the meter hasn’t expired — is not something new.
Pepper told councillors that parking for her and other staff members would also be impacted by this fine.
Councillors discussed whether a root problem of parking availability in the downtown core needs to be addressed.
“We know we have a parking problem, if we also consider some of the comments tonight that maybe we need to look at employers providing parking,” said Coun. Eileen Melnychuk.
“The biggest employer is Yukon government, and a lot of the Yukon government employees are taking up public parking downtown. So maybe we need to, this is an opportunity to work with YG and look at what is our parking issue and take a real, substantive investigation and look at some strategic solutions for everyone,” she said.
Boyd said raising the fines and fees is more about paying the true cost of the city providing parking downtown.
“I know Yukoners, I'm one of them, like to find the cheapest parking I can find, and I like to park really close to wherever I'm going, and I hate having to walk a couple of blocks,” said Boyd.
“But when you visit cities down south, man, you walk a couple of blocks, and if you do get a ticket, it's not cheap.”
Boyd said that the city is trying to encourage as many people as possible to take public transit, and the parking fines are encouragement to do that.
Transit fares are set to increase to $3.50 on July 1, but a bylaw currently working its way through the bylaw process would stagger that increase over two years, so that the fare would increase to $3 on July 1, 2025 and then to $3.50 on July 1, 2026.
“It's not the City of Whitehorse’s job to provide employee parking to people. People are using much of the parking as that. But it's not, that's not the mandate of the City of Whitehorse and when we do that, we shouldn't be passing the cost of providing that on to the rest of the tax base. You know, employers are supposed to find their parking for the, for their employees,” said Boyd.
There is still another vote from council needed before these ticket prices — some now amended to be $40, not $50 — become law. The proposal will undergo its final vote on April 28’s council meeting.
Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
