Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) had requested an additional $2 million in funding from city administration. It has since been clarified that the CPA does not receive money from the city, instead, its revenue comes from parking sales and tickets. Global News regrets the error.
City council heard a request from the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) Tuesday morning to approve a proposed budget amendment.
The CPA said it would like to add additional staff to help sell their proprietary ParkPlus technology to other jurisdictions.
Officials told council that sales have not been as lucrative as they would like, partially because of the cost of the program.
The CPA said they believe the ParkPlus technology is viable, but they would like to look at their marketing strategies.
According to Shelley Trigg, acting general manager of the Calgary Parking Authority, the CPA ran into some unanticipated road blocks in their efforts to sell the ParkPlus technology outside of Calgary.
“There are longer sales cycles, the profits are narrower, it’s a tougher market than we had thought,” said Trigg.
Trigg told council that because of those hurdles, the board requested a comprehensive review of their marketing strategy in 2018.
The city of Edmonton and some smaller municipalities have bought the system.
The parking authority also reported that revenue from street parking is down due to the economic conditions, but say some parkades are still at 100 per cent capacity, albeit without any of the waiting lists of years past.
Council is hearing presentations from various departments and will debate the budgetary adjustment requests before voting on the next four-year budget as a whole. Deliberations are expected to last all week.
With files from Aurelio Perri
Comments