Halifax regional council awards parking enforcement contract to new company

There will be a new company handing out parking tickets in Halifax this fall.

On Tuesday night Halifax Regional Council voted in favour of awarding the parking enforcement contract for the city to security firm G4S.

The municipality decided not to renew the contract with Independent Security Services Atlantic (ISSA) after just three years due to concerns surrounding their overall performance. Last year three ISSA employees were charged and subsequently fired for submitting fake parking tickets.

“We’ve had a lot of customer service complaints over these last number of years so it was important to us to try to rectify that by trying someone new,” District 7 councillor Waye Mason said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We've had a lot of customer service complaints over these last number of years so it was important to us to try to rectify that by trying someone new," District 7 councillor Waye Mason said.

In July staff recommended giving the new contract to G4S for its bid of $840,048 net HST included for up to five years.

At that time some councillors expressed interest in potentially awarding the contract to the Commissionaires or ISSA and asked staff to compile another report comparing all three options.

After lengthy discussions on Tuesday, council voted 14-2 in favour of staff’s original recommendation with Deputy Mayor Matt Whitman and Councillor Steve Adams comprising the “no” votes.

“I think the main debate today and at the last council meeting was can we go back to the Commissionaires, because we recognize they provided a high quality of service, but in terms of cost they just weren’t there and we ended up going with this other company,” Mason said.

G4S was also awarded the security contract for Halifax Stanfield International Airport earlier this year and will be replacing the Commissionaires on January 1 after nearly 60 years of service.