Thunder Bay City Council to debate free parking proposal next month

CBC News

· Posted: May 17, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

A connection to let 2 hours of escaped parking successful on-street, metered tons successful Thunder Bay volition beryllium debated by metropolis assembly adjacent month.

Administration brought the connection guardant successful a study connected Monday, May 12th. If yet approved by council, it would spot motorists get 2 escaped hours of parking, with the enactment to acquisition 2 more, successful metered spots passim the city.

A councillor — their sanction has not yet been provided — has agreed to array a question astatine council's adjacent meeting, which is scheduled for May 26. Council indispensable hold a minimum of 2 weeks aft the question is tabled to statement and vote.

Councillors representing Thunder Bay's concern districts said Tuesday they're successful favour of the move.

That includes Coun. Andrew Foulds, who represents the Current River ward.

"Most people, erstwhile they deliberation of Current River, they they don't deliberation astir each the mode down Cumberland into the halfway area," helium said. "But of people the ward does meander down McVicar Creek into into the downtown."

Foulds said the ward besides encompasses portion of Marina Park.

"There person been a batch of projected changes to parking implicit the past fewer years," helium said. "I deliberation we person to beryllium honorable with ourselves, immoderate of the changes were good with astir people, and immoderate of the changes, galore radical truly struggled with."

Foulds said he'll support the question erstwhile it comes up for a vote, and noted supporting businesses successful downtown cores is particularly important fixed the Canada-US commercialized war.

"I deliberation there's different furniture to each of this," helium said, adding the "the full contented southbound of the borderline has changed, I would accidental drastically, [in narration to] economical conditions, and the economical vibrancy of cities and their cores" successful caller months.

Westford ward Coun. Kristen Oliver, who's ward includes the Westfort Village concern area, besides said she'll support the motion.

"The corridor betwixt Brown and Edward, that's wherever the parking meters are," Oliver said.

She noted that the services that radical entree successful the area, whether visiting a pharmacy, a restaurant or a salon, tin instrumentality longer than an hour.

"Whether you're going successful for waxing oregon you're buying oregon you're having a meal, those typically thin to past astatine slightest an hour, I would say," she said.

Oliver says the projected alteration would let customers to pat into the escaped two-hour parking option, and past connection an inducement to determination on, "which past opens up that parking abstraction for idiosyncratic other to travel successful and utilize those services successful that concern corridor."

Part of the connection is besides astir the metropolis getting much information connected parking demand. The study that went to assembly Monday noted that determination is "significant unused capacity" successful the city's parking system, and the metropolis isn't wholly definite why.

"Given the galore factors that person influenced parking successful caller years — including the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalization projects, shifts successful user habits, and complaint increases — it is unclear what is driving existent usage patterns."

Council approved a caller 10-year parking fiscal program connected Jan. 22, 2024, making respective important changes to parking successful the metropolis successful the process, including:

• Increased rates.
• The instauration of paid parking astatine the Marina, and connected Saturdays.
• Expanded hours of parking enforcement.
• The closure of under-utilized lots.

The changes, the study states, were met with "significant assemblage resistance," which led to immoderate rollbacks, including the reversal of expanded enforcement hours.

If assembly approves the caller proposal, it would beryllium successful effect until the extremity of 2027.

"We request to marque informed decisions based connected empirical data," Foulds said. "That's wherefore we're, adjacent though there's escaped parking, we're asking radical to spell to the machines and log into the app truthful that we person bully coagulated information successful bid to marque informed decisions connected immoderate the strategical absorption is."

The study states the information gleaned volition beryllium utilized to pass aboriginal parking decisions, specified arsenic perchance offering antithetic rates successful antithetic areas or time-of-day pricing.