Winnipeg mayoral candidate Loney proposes 25-cent daily fee on commercial parking spaces
Move intended to deter personal vehicle use would require change to provincial legislation
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Shaun Loney wants to charge a 25-cent daily fee on every commercial parking space in the city as part of an effort to deter the use of personal vehicles.
As part of a 26-page campaign platform document, Loney promised to ask the province to amend the City of Winnipeg Charter — the legislation that lays out what the city can and cannot do — to allow Winnipeg to levy new fees on commercial parking.
"The most obvious is at malls that have a lot of parking," Loney said Tuesday at a campaign announcement about his platform.
"Twenty-five cents a day is a very moderate move towards getting us thinking about, 'How do we make a city that's not so dependent on cars?'"
Loney said if he's elected mayor on Oct. 26, the city will spend $100,000 in 2023 to conduct an inventory of every commercial parking space in Winnipeg.
That would be offset in 2024 by a new parking fee that would generate $9.1 million a year, assuming the provincial government agrees to amend the charter, according to his platform.
Historically, Winnipeg mayors have not had much success making requests for legislative changes. That led rival mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham to argue Loney has "a hole in his budget plan" because "it relies on a new parking tax the city can't legally impose."
A new parking fee would also be unpopular with owners of commercial properties.
"We would not support a parking lot tax like that," said Peter Squire, who handles external relations for the Winnipeg Regional Real Estate Board, on Wednesday.
The Winnipeg Zoning Bylaw, which governs development in all parts of the city outside downtown, requires commercial developers to build a minimum number of parking stalls. Retail stores and shopping centres, for example, require one parking stall for every 250 square feet of floor space, according to the bylaw.
Loney said he does not think his proposed tax would have an onerous effect on commercial property owners who were required to build large parking lots by the city.
"Most of them have received significant property tax rebate cheques from the provincial government," Loney said Tuesday.
Loney and Gillingham are among 11 candidates running for mayor. Idris Adelakun, Rana Bokhari, Chris Clacio, Kevin Klein, Jenny Motkaluk, Glen Murray, Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Rick Shone and Don Woodstock are also on the ballot.
Advance polls are open until Oct. 21. Election day is Oct. 26.