Parking Rates and Arena Rates Boosted
Monday, July 8, 2013 @ 3:40 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The rate for the new parking fees for downtown Prince George has been set. When the new parking meter system returns to downtown Prince George, the hourly rate will be one dollar. That was one of the first items to be tackled by Council as it returned to work on the recommendations from the Core Services Review.
While it was clear there had been previous discussion about the return of the pay parking to on street downtown, such was not the case when it came to setting the hourly rate.
Councillor Brian Skakun asked City Administration when the rate was made public, and the answer was that the fee was first public when this report was released. In effect, the rate became public when the Core Services Review Implementation Report was released Wednesday July 3rd.
Then there is the matter of user rates for sports fields.
There will be a new annual fee for the rental of City Property. The current agreement has several user groups paying just 10 dollars per year. That amount is to be boosted to $1,000 per year. Those groups that currently have an agreement that will come up for renewal next year, will see their existing agreement extended one year to come up for renewal at the new rate along with a dozen other organizations.
Fees for adult community use of schools will be increased by 10% a year for three years, effective January 1st 2014.
And then it was on to arena fees and user rates:
Saying Prince George’s arena fees and charges are the lowest when compared to North Vancouver Chilliwack and Kamloops, staff recommended the rates be boosted by 15% per year for three years. According to staff , the increase would mean, the average participant in PG Men’s Recreational Hockey would go from the current $329 per person, to $379 in 2014, $436 in 2015 and $502 dollars in 2016.
The hike was too high for some Councillors to swallow. While Councillor Dave Wilbur says the principle of user pay is a valid principle. “In my view we should stick to user pay and deal with the phasing”. While not in favour of 15%, most Councillors agreed the rates had to increase, although Councillor Murry Krause asked “what’s the tipping point? At what point do we make it too expensive and people will just not participate anymore?”
The bottom line is that while there was an appetite for an increase, the rate will be a 5% hike each year for three years effective January 1, 2014. Councillor Cameron Stolz did not support this increase, he was pushing for either an increase of 8% or different rates for adults and youth. Both ideas were rejected.
Aquatic fees will also be increased by 5% each year for three years, effective January 1, 2014.
Comments
A dollar an hour to park downtown? Screw that. Looks like College Heights and the mall just got a little more attractive.
Best of luck to businesses down there, it’s gonna be a ghost town.
“Best of luck to businesses down there, it’s gonna be a ghost town.”
You say that as if the downtown wasn’t a ghost town already. Don’t let the employees cars parked everywhere fool you.
You compare yourself to North Van, that’s huge ?
All Shopping Centers have free Parking and only one is Down Town , Library is free to so I won’t ever have to pay.
How much will it cost to install all the Meters ? Meters are Revenue Neutral , so why
install them again, this has been said same time ago!
I will not shop downtown. The malls with free parking is so much more attractive. I would not want to be someone who has a business downtown.
Has anyone heard what the new high tech parking meters are going to cost us installed? Don’t be surprised if they see a lot of vandalism. These parking meters are another very serious error in judgement by City Council. The downtown business people are also against these meters. What ever happened to democracy and recognizing the will of the people.
The municipal election of November 2014 will definitely see the elimination of most of the present City Council.
Do the cops have to pay a $1 per hour for parking at their new museum?
Can you imagine a trying to have a conversation with city hall?
“wow look at all these cars, we could get $1 each per hour!”
“yes but the business’ here dont want it”
“but we get $1 each per hour!”
“yes but the people of the city dont want pay parking either”
“but we get $1 each per hour!”
“not really, the meters cost money so we dont make any profit off of it”
“but we get $1 each per hour!”
*smash head against wall*
“The current agreement has several user groups paying just 10 dollars per year. That amount is to be boosted to $1,000 per year.”
What is being rented for $10/year now that will be increased 100 times?
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Will the parking lot fees also go up to $1/hour? What about the hourly rates at the parkades, if there are any such stalls?
In Bellingham, WA there are no parking meters in the historic part of town (Fairhaven) which is alive and kicking to say the least.
In the DBA there are meters, but they are not in effect in the evenings after 5 or 6 nor all day Saturdays and Sundays. So, main shopping hours there is free parking on the streets. What is it going to be in PG?
How much additional money does the city anticipate it will bring in with all of these measures?
Has anyone actually done the math or are they just going through the motions to make it appear like they are doing “something”, when the end result of the actions is possibly going to be “nothing”?
By changing the proposed increases “on the fly”, I have a hunch that council has no idea what the bottom line impact of their decisions will be. If true, that’s scary.
Charging high fee’s for on street parking is a ploy to force people to use off street parking, and the parkades, which I believe are totally under utilized. The City will then reap more revenue from these facilities, plus the additional on street parking money, and the money from parking fines. Nice work if you can get it.
So far this Core Review has done nothing except to find various ways to increase user fee’s, and costs, which will all be funneled down to the consumer. As an example the license fee for a rental suite will be downloaded from the owner to the renter. User fee’s for facilities will be paid for (for the most part) by the very taxpayers, that paid for the facilities, and the upkeep in the first place.
Whats missing at this point, and hopefully will come to light very soon is the reduction in Management, Staff, and Operating Budgets which hopefully will result in significant savings to taxpayers.
To find these devious means to continue to raise taxes and user fee’s while maintaining the status quo, is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
As an example. City staff gets free parking all around City Hall, while we the taxpayers are not allowed to park over 2 hours or we get towed away. When we bring in the new system for parking will we include charges for City Staff parking.????
Legal suites will be required to get a license, however it appears that illegal sweets will continue to get a free ride. So if you obey the lay you get a tax increase, if ignore the law you get a reward.
City Hall has been squandering our tax dollars for years. Pet projects, useless airspace, river berms, law suits, bogus studies, hosting events we can’t afford, etc and now not only have our taxes and utilities gone up exponentially and we have become one of the most expensive places to live in BC, property tax wise, now they want us to pay $1.00 to park downtown. They ripped the old meters out and now they want to spend who knows what to reinstall them, wasnt the results of that study they did, the impetus to pull them out in the first place. It’s all ludicrous and everyone has to follow the gong show and pay thru the nose for their screw ups and ineptness. I feel for the shops trying to make a go of it down there. I’m not paying a dollar to run into the bakery or into a gift store. Just not gonna happen, ever.
I support your argument Junco, add we have the highest paid mayor to comparable communities who also spent double bubble her first year in the chair for her expenses; my favourite by far is Stolz’s dyke and that cop shop he is so darned proud off makes my eyes glaze over every time I see it. Palopu has outlined so much more waste. I will continue to support some of the downtown businesses in spite of the stupid parking meters.
Hey I just had a brain fart! Since the expansion to the hospital there has been no increase in parking. Now that folks have to pay to park downtown, how about more parking and FREE parking at the hospital. I can’t believe we still have to pay to park at the hospital and there’s been absolutely no increase in parking there, so the revenues gained downtown can be the offset to free hospital parking. No? I won’t hold my breath, again………..
Just don’t pay the ticket!
Perhaps they can put parking meters on the gurneys, so that you have to pay for parking the gurney in the hallway while you are waiting for emergency treatment.
The hospital could forward the money collected by gurney meter’s to City Hall to help them with their quest to break the backs of taxpayers in Prince George.
interceptor, thanks for the laugh – well done!
Maybe when comparing ice rental rates the facilities should also be looked at. The kin rinks for years have had mismatched change room taps, shower heads missing,and the list goes on. Not the fault of the maintenance people as they only can work with what they get.
How about comparing ice rental rates in the north, Vanderhoof, MacKenzie, Kitimat, Ft St John. Why cherry pick.
Why is the Cougar’s sweetheart ice rental deal not mentioned. How much does that cost the taxpayer.
You can just imagine the increases if Stolz, the dike man, was mayor. Heaven forbid.
15% increase in hockey fees over three years will be the death nail for many recreational hockey leagues and reduced participation in PGMHA. Sure you can raise the prices, but eventually people will find cheaper recreational sports to do. I know one oldtimers league which is already struggling to attract new players. I guess having an empty arenas are better than reasonable user fee hikes. Instead of 15% over three years maybe 1.5% each year would be easier to swallow for users. Once you lose folks to other activities you won’t be able to attract them back. Higher fees means fewer players!!
Can’t wait to punt this council from office!!
I have not been overly concerned with municipal politics till now. The re-implementation of parking down town is off the charts stupid. The cost to re-install, the pissy revenue, the maintenance, the push back from business owners, the push back from users, the increased burden to down town redevelopment.
Unbelievable in the extreme.
Hey JB, think this through. We can come up with a way to deal with employee parking with out meterizing downtown PG.
On another note. Increasing rink rates as purposed will kill an already struggling rec hockey league. Krause was right when he questioned the breaking point when people will not participate. As France is finding out, massive tax raises don’t mean revenue raises. I played rec hockey for years and getting fees was tough. Not sure what the answer is but these hikes will kill rec hockey and they pay a lot of overall revenue for their size.
The answer is to freeze wages and benefits for five years. Reduce staff through attrition, and reduce operating costs.
High paid Managers should be required to find a minimum 5% reduction in their budgets.
Capital projects and borrowing to be frozen for a minimum of five years.
Not having to go through this BS of a Core Review etc;, and not having to negotiate contracts or find money for increases in wages and salaries, etc; should give us some continuity at City Hall.
Those who are not happy with an increase of course have the option of resigning and moving on. I doubt how ever that they will find any jobs anywhere in the Northern Interior that pay as good, and ask the least, as the jobs they presently have.
15% increase per year is not what it seems. Start at the base rate of $329 and end up with $502. This is an increase of $173 or 52.5%. Divide by 3 years and you actually have an average annual increase of 17.5% over the 3 years.
This is excessive in my view. It’s not just the cost of ice rental to play rec hockey. Good luck with this one Council. Well done.
“Hey JB, think this through. We can come up with a way to deal with employee parking with out meterizing downtown PG.”
Easy! Condition of employment at a downtown business includes NOT using personal vehicle to come to work unless it is parked during working hours in a parking garage. Proof must be provided. Otherwise bring proof of using public transit, employer may assist with monthly transit pass.
What is needed is a disciplined concerted effort at breaking City Hall by all hockey leagues/players.
Start off by hanging up the skates for a year and let City Hall know what no revenue over the winter will do to their bottom line. The professionals have been doing it. Eventually someone will break or someone will come to their senses and find an agreeable solution.
Where this council is concerned the rules are as follows: One, Stolz and Green will always vote together (ain’t it cute) and Two, voting opposite the dynamic duo is likely the most sound and definitely the most ethical.
Mt humble opinion only, of course.
Palopu wrote: “….. the parkades, which I believe are totally under utilized”
They are not full, but they are close to it with the long term space rentals for employers, hotels, etc.
Palopu, I agree 100%!
It’s time to get a handle on the excessive wage and benefits packages enjoyed by our municipal employees, from all employees, Management, Frontline workers, the whole lot of them!
It’s time that our Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments stood up for the average taxpayer instead of giving in to the demands of their unionized and non-unionized workforce.
We, the people, have way too much government. We have way too many government employees, most being paid 130 to 140% of what a comparable private sector employee would be paid. We, the people, the taxpaying people just can’t afford it anymore!!
Open your eyes and look at the salaries and wages of Canfor employees, both union and exempt staff. Do a comparative study between the two organization and you will not see much difference.
Seems like people are still struggling with the idea of paying more of the true cost of running all of the City’s facilties.
As a rec hockey player, I support the increased fees. If we want good facilties to play in, we as the users have to pay for them.
“Seems like people are still struggling with the idea of paying MORE of the true cost of running all of the City’s facilties.”
I have a problem with paying MORE of the true cost.
Since there are those who feel that a performing arts facility should pay ALL the cost, I can agree with that if ALL the facilities the City provides should pay ALL the true cost of building and operating the facilities.
If not, then they should all get the same percentage subsidies. Everyone who uses any of the facilities pays 50% of all the true costs, for instance. There should be no discrimination when it comes to choice of recreation/entertainment.
BYOB … yer math is wrong …. 15% over 3 years is 5% increase each of those 3 years
final tally will be 380 and change
329x 1.05 =345.45
345.45 x 1.05 =362.73
362.73 x 1.05 = 380.86
Hart guy …. show us the proof .. or are you just spewing misinformation again ….
You will see that that City Trades workers actually get less than a private sector comparible in both take home and bennies. Same goes with frankly all Public sector Trades workers. if what you stated was true … then there sure wouldnt be a recruitment and retention issue that there is now.
gus: “I have a problem with paying MORE of the true cost.
Since there are those who feel that a performing arts facility should pay ALL the cost, I can agree with that if ALL the facilities the City provides should pay ALL the true cost of building and operating the facilities.
If not, then they should all get the same percentage subsidies. Everyone who uses any of the facilities pays 50% of all the true costs, for instance. There should be no discrimination when it comes to choice of recreation/entertainment.”
The reason I used the phrase ‘more of the true cost’ is that I don’t know what kind of user fees the arena would need to make it self-sustaining. If even after the fee increases, we’re not even scratching the surface of maintaining and operating the facilty, we’ve got bigger problems!
Adding an expensive PAC to the equation would only end up potentially costing us all more.
“The reason I used the phrase ‘more of the true cost’ is that I don’t know what kind of user fees the arena would need to make it self-sustaining. If even after the fee increases, we’re not even scratching the surface of maintaining and operating the facilty, we’ve got bigger problems”
This shouldn’t be rocket science for the city to figure out if they have a functioning accounting system! Hey, I have an idea. Maybe they should hire KPMG to do a study for them. They employ accountants don’t they? Heck, doesn’t the city employ accountants?
Then again, their accounting system apparently can’t even tell them what a specific invoice was for. Never mind, LOL ;)
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