Opposition wants Montreal to backtrack on extended paid parking hours

The official opposition at Montreal city hall wants the Plante administration to backtrack on its plan to extend paid parking hours.

Speaking to media Monday morning – Ensemble Montréal leader Aref Salem said they would ask at the next city council meeting on May 15, to amend the bylaw concerning parking fees to restore last year’s paid parking hours.

“The administration deserves a fine for the way it’s handling the extension of parking meter hours. If it really wanted to consult its partners, it would have done so before voting for the change in the budget, not after the fact… The administration may say that it’s a simple mess and that it will do things in the right order, but the reality is that they tried to pull a fast one on Montrealers. They already made up their mind, now they just have to figure out how to impose this on merchants and boroughs,” said Salem in a press release.

(Hayder Mahdy, CityNews Image)

The opposition says an amendment was adopted at a City Council meeting last August to the effect that boroughs must be consulted before any change in parking meter pricing and that Projet Montréal has not followed that process. They add the city should specify how long the moratorium is in effect for, which is not the case at the moment.

“This is the first time Montreal has seen a moratorium with no set duration. It is a non-transparent and piecemeal way of governing. The application of a by-law cannot and must not be done at will when the administration feels that it has made a bad decision. This sets a dangerous precedent,” said Julien Hénault-Ratelle, the Official Opposition Critic for Economic Development.

The city of Montreal recently paused its plan to extend paid parking hours after new parking stickers were installed – without warning – in downtown Montreal which would require paid parking until 11 p.m six days a week.