Halifax puts the brakes on paid Saturday parking, passes largest budget ever

Halifax has passed its largest-ever municipal budget at $1.2 billion, with taxes rising to pay for major projects and city services, but a controversial move to bring in paid Saturday parking was reversed.

On Tuesday, a dozen business owners and advocates told the city's budget committee how paid Saturday parking would further deter customers — who already think there's nowhere to park — from coming downtown.

They said the move amid high inflation, repaying federal loans stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a retail and service-industry worker shortage, was simply too harmful.

"This is, in my view, a dangerous decision at this time under these circumstances," Christian Rankin, co-owner of the Obladee Wine Bar on Barrington Street, told the committee. 

Rankin said not every Haligonian might be interested in local theatre, concerts, or sports teams like the Halifax Wanderers or Mooseheads, but these events are doing the "overwhelming amount of the work" to make the downtown dynamic.

He said that energy is a large part of Halifax's pitch to get more people and companies moving into the area.

"This is not about helping small businesses as much as it's about supporting the vibrancy of downtown for the benefit of the city and everybody in it," Rankin said.

The original parking plan, approved by the committee in March, would have brought in a $2-hourly fee for street parking in the Spring Garden Road area, downtown Halifax and downtown Dartmouth from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

The idea was one of many staff brought to councillors as a way to balance the budget and keep tax bills below the eight per cent hike that was initially suggested. 

Coun. Pam Lovelace put forward the motion to cancel the parking plan, saying she'd heard from many people in her Hammonds Plains district who don't have Saturday bus service and rely on their cars to drive downtown.

"This is the wrong time to do this. Certainly we can do this in the future," Lovelace said.

Although most other major cities in Canada have paid weekend parking — and the Town of Lunenburg charges for Saturday as well — Lovelace said it's not a "fair comparison" since those other areas are more walkable or have reliable regular transit throughout the municipality.

While other councillors pointed out that paid parking might actually help turnover to keep spots free for shoppers, councillors agreed there was not enough data to show whether that would be the case in Halifax. 

The budget committee eventually voted to cancel the Saturday parking plan, which removed $538,000 in potential annual revenue from the budget.