While Moose Jaw is attempting to find a way to make metered parking enforcement more economical, other Saskatchewan communities have actually done away with metered parking altogether.
In Canada’s border city, Lloydminster, Alta./Sask., the city council decided to undertake a 15-month trial period and not enforce metered parking rules — from Oct. 1, 1994 to Dec. 31, 1995.
Don Newlin, City of Lloydminster director of finance, told the Times-Herald the border city undertook the pilot project in partnership with Lloydminster’s downtown business improvement district.
Surveys conducted in conjunction with the project demonstrated a majority of impacted businesses felt the metered parking removal to be positive, with more customers entering businesses.
As well, city hall received fewer complaints due to parking issues and Newlin said the city had a generally improved atmosphere downtown. He added Lloydminster bylaw officers enforced two-hour downtown parking limits throughout the trial.
When the trial period was over, Newlin said city hall decided to do away with metered parking downtown permanently, with police attending to parking violations more on a complaint basis.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
