Toronto parking rates may go up
Toronto’s on-street parking rates will increase an average of 11 per cent if city council approves the proposal at its July meeting.
The Toronto Parking Authority, which runs the city’s on-street parking meters and pay and display machines, is seeking the okay to make the following changes:
• About 800 spots in the downtown core would increase to $4 an hour from $3.50. The spaces run from Bond St. west to Spadina Ave. and Elm St. south to Front St.
• Some 2,800 spaces surrounding the core — west to Bathurst, east to Jarvis and north to Davenport — would go to $3 from $2.50 hourly.
• About 8,000 spaces in other parts of the city that are now $2 an hour would go to $2.25.
The current $1 an hour and $1.50 an hour spots — about 7,000 — would be unchanged.
The proposals would increase the parking authority’s average take from a street parking space to $2.13 an hour from $1.92 — a hike of 11 per cent.
In its report, the authority said inflation in Toronto has risen 10 per cent since parking rates last changed in 2007, so the proposed increases are in line with inflation.
“It’s not that we’re increasing significantly the rates but we have to catch up,” said Councillor Ana Bailao, a member of the parking authority’s board of directors.
Bailao said the increases “are in areas that can sustain it. They’re very busy areas. If we’re expecting people to pay $3 to go on transit, we can assume that people can pay $3 or $4 for a parking spot.”
The rate request would generate an extra $4 million a year. The city-owned parking authority — which also operates all the Green P off street lots in the city — turns over a big chunk of its net revenue to the city. Last year, about $42 million flowed into city coffers from the parking authority.
The proposed increases are to be presented to next week’s meeting of the government management committee and go on to city council for a final decision at the July 10 and 11 meeting.
If approval is granted, it will take about a month to make the rate changes, said parking authority executive Ian Maher.
The parking authority hit a snag recently because its pay and display machines would not accept the new loonies and toonies. Maher said most of the machines have now been adjusted to accept the new coins.
— Torstar Service
