Paying for street parking in Winnipeg is about to cost you even more. The mayor has introduced a few last minute changes to the budget. One of the biggest is an additional 50 cents per hour for parking.
When the 2018 budget was first released Nov. 22, parking fees were set to rise $1 per hour. With the additional hike announced Friday, rates for on-street parking would jump by $1.50 per hour starting April 1, 2018.
Local businesses like Across the Board Game Cafe in the Exchange District fear the parking increase will steer away business.
“Now all of the sudden if you’re doing that at another $1.50 an hour, that adds up really quick and that makes it a lot tougher to come here and be able to hangout or do whatever you want to do downtown because there’s always that other bill building up in the background with your parking,” Manager Nick Mann said.
The owner of Toad Hall Toys, Ray England, agreed.
“This is to raise revenue and it’s penalizing one area of the city to subsidize transit,” he said.
Mayor Brian Bowman said the bump in parking fees will help with parking turnover downtown and help balance the budget.
Money brought in by the increase will mean that originally proposed service cuts to up to 22 Winnipeg Transit routes wouldn’t take place, but a rise in bus fares is still in the works.
READ MORE: Winnipeggers upset over bus fare hikes
“We listened. We are trying to find ways to address the concerns that were raised,” Bowman said.
The mayor also wants to look into a low income bus fare. Details from the qualifications to the fare rate would come out of a Winnipeg Transit operational review.
The budget will be voted on by city council Tuesday.
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