Downtown Ottawa councillors fight evening, weekend parking fees

Charging for evening and weekend parking at street meters in downtown Ottawa will drive business to the suburbs and is unfair to community groups such as churches, say opponents who include downtown city councillors.

"This new law is noxious, it's divisive and it's environmentally not sustainable," said Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet on Ottawa Morning Tuesday about the policy that would force customers to start paying forcity centre parking that used to be free.

Doucet and other downtown councillors will introduce a motion next Wednesday to delay the plan at least a year, until a city-wide parking policy can be developed.

Thenew evening and weekend feeswere passed during 2008 budget deliberations, when council also hiked parking meter rates from $2.50 to $3 an hour.

Kitchissippi Coun. Christine Leadman said the fees will encourage people to drive long distances to shop at big box storeson the outskirts of town on evenings and weekends.

"People are saying now, 'We will not come downtown,'" she said Monday. "Instead of stopping, they're going to go out to the big power centres where they have free parking."

Church minister joins fight

It's not just businesses that will be affected by the new parking fees, said Doug Kendall, the minister at Knox Presbyterian Church at Elgin and Lisgar Streets.

He said the fees will affect choirs and other groups that use the church in the evening, as well asa program that provides hot meals for the homeless on Saturday evenings.

"The volunteers that come in, they're the ones that are going to need to park and prepare the meals," said Kendall, who has organized a postcard campaign against the fees.

Besides filing a motion in council, downtown councillors are also trying to mobilize thecommunity by holding a public meeting andencouraging theirconstituents to write letters.

"We are really making an appeal to all of the merchants, every mom-and-pop shop to write to the mayor, write to council and say this cannot work the way it is," Leadman said.

Fees to keep taxes down: councillor

Downtown councillors voted against the fees, but were outnumbered by suburban councillors such as Kanata South Coun. Peggy Feltmate who voted in favour.

She said the goal was to boost city revenues without increasing property taxes. In addition, she said, councillors wanted to encourage people to take transit downtown andwere alreadyhiking transit faresseven per cent.

"It seemed fair to add on to the car user, particularly suburban car users that want to come downtown and park," she told Ottawa Morning.

But she said she agreed with arguments from residents that people drive downtown on evenings and weekends because Ottawa doesn't have dependable public transit at those times, unlike Toronto or Montreal.

On the other hand, she said, the "free parking" at big box stores isn't really free, as the owners of the shopping centres pay taxes on the lots, and that is reflected in the price of goods.

Feltmate said she is open to changing her mind, and other suburban councillors such as Marianne Wilkinson, who represents Kanata North, have also indicated they might be willing to budge on the issue.

"I think that stopping payment at meters after seven o'clock, for example, would allow people to go for evening activities without having problems of running back and forth," Wilkinson said. "And I think Sunday should be free."

City budget documents show that charging for parking on weekends will provide about $665,000 in extra revenue each year, while evening parking on weekdays will bring in almost $1.3 million. The increase in parking meter rates will earn $775,000 and adding new parking meters will bring in $480,000.