Jasper Municipal Council voted 5-2 to increase its visitor paid parking rates by $1 during its Tuesday meeting.
This will increase the rates from $3.50 to $4.50 per hour for on-street parking, and $2.50 to $3.50 per hour for off-street parking. Daily rates for parking lots will also go up from $15 to $17.
Coun. Wendy Hall, who made the motion, noted that Jasper would still have rates similar to other tourist communities in Alberta.
“I don't think we're too high, and this visitor paid parking also directly benefits residents in a really positive way where that money goes to, in part, the renovation at the Activity Centre, just getting successful new dressing rooms, and part of it goes to a public transit, which is starting to move our residents around town in a really positive way.”
Banff will also be increasing its visitor paid parking rates by $1.
Jasper began its paid parking program in 2021 to have visitors help fund municipal services and infrastructure, decrease parking congestion and encourage alternative forms of transportation.
The rates were initially set at $2 per hour but have been steadily increasing year after year.
Jasper residents are currently exempt from paid parking.
Last week, administration recommended increasing the rates by only 50 cents, but Hall proposed a $1 increase instead, emphasizing the importance of getting revenue from visitors as opposed to local ratepayers.
Council also discussed making its paid parking program year round but ultimately decided against it.
Coun. Scott Wilson was opposed to raising the rates without addressing residential paid parking or residential permits.
“When we first started talking about the parking, one of the benefits to paid parking was to encourage alternate modes of transportation,” Wilson said.
“We haven't done any of that, and so we've just looked at the dollars.”
Coun. Rico Damota was also not in favour of increasing the rates, noting that while Jasper could be considered a legacy destination like Banff or Canmore, it was much farther away from major centres and airports.
Damota did concede that Jasper hadn’t fully maximized its revenues, which made it difficult to ask for alternative sources of revenue from the province.
“I don't think that we've maxed everything out, but at the same [time], I want to have a little bit more of a concrete platform and justify increases and not just attaching arbitrary numbers,” he said, referring to a chart in last week’s agenda comparing Jasper’s paid parking rates with other communities.
“And I know they're based on other communities and stuff, but because I feel that we do have some different instances and it's still pretty fresh here, I can’t support that without having a little bit more detail and what all this would mean in a grander scheme.”
Coun. Helen Kelleher-Empey said Jasper needed to increase its rates a little each year to avoid large hikes and that most visitors expect to pay for parking.
Although Coun. Ralph Melnyk supported the increase, he didn’t want to go beyond that and noted how transit and potentially e-bikes would be available during the summer for the first time.
“We have a year that we have to sit back and analyze what this summer is going to look like with the changes in what transportation modes are available to us.”
Coun. Kathleen Waxer added that this increase would be essential for the municipality to reach its budgeted revenue target for paid parking, which is $1.35 million this year.
Paid parking will resume on May 1 and last until Oct. 31.
