Saskatoon downtown group says parking fee hike 'punishes' business

The head of Saskatoon’s Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) is not happy with the decision by city councillors to increase parking fees.

During a special budget meeting last month, councillors voted in favour of a city administration plan to increase parking fees by 50 cents an hour and to add a 15-cent fee anytime the parking app is used in an effort to reduce a projected $51-million budget shortfall anticipated for next year.

The plan will still need approval when council meets later this year to finalize the budget.

The downtown BID's executive director Brent Penner said the area has not fully recovered from COVID-19 and the increase in parking fees will hurt local businesses.

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“The timing is not great - with downtowns being the hardest hit from the pandemic, it kind of punishes downtown at a time it is still trying to recover,” Penner said to CTV News in an email.

"While the city did this to increase their revenue from parking, one analyst has opined that it could reduce visitation to these areas and if that happens, parking revenue stays flat. Time will tell on this," Penner said.

Penner said the councillors' decision may have unforeseen circumstances.

“The city’s decision may well drive up the cost of parking in private parking lots as well,” he said.

“One factor that may mitigate against this is the city really is not a player in the provision of off-street parking. They don’t have any parkades or great number of surface parking lots.”

He said the decision will have a trickle down effect.

“I just don’t think admin and council thought through these issues very deeply, and instead of finding savings in the budget, they actually found another way to tax the citizens and visitors to our city,” Penner said.

With files from Josh Lynn