THUNDER BAY – Starting Thursday, the City of Thunder Bay will be cracking down on parking regulations.
At city council’s meeting on Monday, City Manager John Collin announced there will no longer be warnings issued for parking infractions.
“We were giving first time warnings," Collin said in an interview after the meeting.
"We created a whole slew of new parking regulations – areas that before you didn't have to pay at all, extended hours in other areas and the residents and the businesses need time to adapt to that.
“Where we saw violations and they were first time offenders, we issued a warning during the last two months.”
Collin said the education phase is over at this point.
“We do have to drive towards making parking a self-sufficient entity that we're not subsidizing anymore. It's time to now issue violations with fines.”
There were quite a few first-time warnings issued, he said.
“I think it was a useful exercise to give that grace period and educate the public as to what the requirements were moving forward. Sooner or later, you have to enforce your own bylaws and it's time.”
Collin said the decisions have been made at this point.
“Parking must become self-sustaining. Council has decided that in the future they do not want to be subsidizing parking, establishing all of our parking zones. Maintaining them costs money.
“For those who are looking for a less expensive option, I would strongly encourage the parkades. The rates in our parkades are extremely low."
The city wants to go towards a user-pay system.
“The reality is establishing parking within the city costs us money, which means by extension, it costs the taxpayer money.
“That is to say those who use the parking ought to pay for it,” he said
A media release issued Tuesday said vehicles that violate the new expanded hours and paid-parking area regulations throughout Thunder Bay will no longer receive a first-time offence warning and will receive a ticket starting on Thursday.
Hours of enforcement, parking rates and enforcement locations were changed effective June 1 of this year.
Since that time, Municipal Parking Services officers have issued written warnings to a vehicle or given verbal warnings to drivers on-scene for the new hours and location rules.
These warnings will cease as of 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning, the release said.
The warnings were to assist drivers in adapting to the new paid parking locations and hours of enforcement.
As part of the engagement process regarding changes to parking, the city heard about parking challenges in the North Core with ongoing construction by the city, the release said.
Council ratified the creation of two-hour parking exemptions in areas of major municipal construction, which allows the city manager the authority to designate free two-hour metered parking zones where areas are designated as a temporary exemption zone.
The first area to receive this temporary designation will be specific streets in the area of the North Core Streetscape Renewal, where free two-hour, metered parking will be available on the following streets effective Tuesday, Aug. 13:
- Court Street – from Lincoln Street to Van Norman Street
- Cumberland Street – from Lincoln Steet to Van Norman Street
- Red River Road – Algoma Street to Water Street (does not include surface lots or Parkade)
- Park Avenue – Court Street South to Cumberland Street South
- Cook Street- Court Street North to St. Paul Street
- St. Paul Street – Red River Road to Van Norman Street
- Lorne Street
Where meters are designated for two-hour free parking, they will have clearly marked meter head covers. Drivers are asked to pay attention to the signage.
More information about parking times, rates and locations can be found at thunderbay.ca/parking.
