Halifax to start charging for parking on Saturdays

Halifax Regional Municipality will be introducing on-street parking, after its budget committee voted to extend paid parking to Saturdays.

Drivers will have to pay to park in pockets of downtown Halifax and Dartmouth between the hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Business owner and operator, Neil Cook, has been running his business in the core downtown Dartmouth for eight years. As a small business owner, he is unhappy with the city’s move to extend paid parking to weekends.

“It says a lot to me as a small business owner, where the priorities are with the city and it’s not with support small businesses unfortunately.”

Cook says parking in the city is already a problem for customers and adding costs will not help his bottom line.

“That’s probably the biggest complaint I hear on a daily bases from our customers is the lack of parking and the parking challenges.”

The city believes this will help businesses by facilitating turnover.

“The number one complaint that we receive is that people can’t find parking on the weekends in downtown and so charging for parking helps alleviate that pressure and creates more space,”  says Victoria Horne, Director of Parking Services at Halifax Regional Municipality.

Horne says the purpose of this policy is to have available parking near businesses so space is not taken by residents or employees in the area.

The city is in the process of developing the administrative change order, and plans on implementing the policy with a soft launch.

“It’s not like we’ll have officers out punitively ticketing on the first Saturday in June for those that haven’t registered their payment sessions. We’re definitely going to ease in to it alongside residents,” says Horne.

Originally, the city was considering extending paid parking to weeknights as well, however, the city voted against this during the budget meeting.

Last month, the Business Associations in the Dartmouth and Halifax areas wrote an open letter to the budget committee against the changes to the parking policy, stating that it would come at a disadvantage for local businesses.

Chief Executive Officer of Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, Tim Rissesco, says he is disappointed with the city’s decision.

“We have people coming, parking and shopping or going to the market on Saturdays and moving along. There’s always parking so it’s kind of a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

The city says the money collected from parking pay stations will offset public works operating budgets and go towards downtown area maintenance.

Rissesco says while there is not much that can be done now, he hopes to see revenue from weekend parking used toward enhancing the current services of businesses.

“We pay some of the most expensive properties with the highest commercial tax rates in downtown, so we’re already paying high taxes for that so I would like to see those enhancements.”

The municipality is aiming to implement paid parking on Saturdays in June. It will cost $2 dollars an hour.