Thunder Bay city administration proposes two hours of free on-street parking

CBC

12-05-2025

Thunder Bay City Administration is hoping to learn more about parking trends in the city by enticing drivers with two hours of free parking.
A report going to council on Monday states that since the implementation of the Parking Authority Financial Plan, overall use of the city's parking system has increased. However, there is "significant unused capacity."
And the city is unclear as to why, exactly, that is the case.
"Given the many factors that have influenced parking in recent years – including the COVID-19 pandemic, revitalization projects, shifts in consumer habits, and rate increases – it is unclear what is driving current usage patterns."
The report notes that council approved the parking financial plan on Jan. 22, 2024. The plan made several significant changes to parking in the city, including:
Increased rates.
The introduction of paid parking at the Marina, and on Saturdays.
Expanded hours of parking enforcement.
The closure of under-utilized lots.
The changes, the report states, were met with "significant community resistance," which led to some rollbacks, including the reversal of expanded enforcement hours.
"In light of increasing community concern, Administration committed to bring an update to City Council by January 2026," the report states. "Based on the data collected to date, as well as concern from the business community and residents, Administration has accelerated its review of paid parking and is presenting a strategic shift in approach."
Keri Greaves, city treasurer and commissioner of corporate services, said the financial plan was focused on making the city's parking system pay for itself.
"While financial sustainability is still important, we also need to understand why we have paid parking, and that's to encourage turnover in high demand areas to facilitate access," he said. "That high demand isn't there, so we have a bit of misalignment between the increased parking fees, and not a strong demand to warrant that."
Ideally, the report states, there would be about 10 to 20 per cent vacancy in on-street parking areas at any given time. For example, in a typical block with 10 parking spaces, one or two should always be available.
"This level of availability ensures that drivers can find parking without excessive circling, reducing congestion, frustration, and greenhouse gas emissions," the report states.
However, data collected to date shows that the opposite is happening, with an on-street parking utilization rate of 10 per cent or less. The data only applies to people using the app or a pay machine; people paying for parking with coins at a meter aren't included.
The suggested free parking plan would involve several steps before being approved by council and would not likely be debated before the end of the month.
If the suggestion is eventually approved by city council, Greaves said drivers would still need to use the city's parking app, or the parking pay machines, even though the first two hours of parking would be free.
That, Greaves said, is important if the city is to get the needed parking data.
"It's really important that the data is there because going forward, the data is going to ... drive the recommendations," he said. If a person can't use the app, or a pay machine is unavailable, parking enforcement officers would manually track vehicles to enforce the complimentary parking timelines, the report states.
Drivers can pay for an extra two hours' of on-street parking after the free two hours expires; anyone needing to park for longer than four hours, however, would need to do so in a pay-metered parking lot, or a city parkade, the report states.
If approved by council, the complimentary two hours of on-street parking would be in effect until the end of 2027.
Maelyn Hurley, founder of Goods and Co. Market in the city's north core, said she's in favour of the city offering two hours of free parking.
"That would be huge," she said. "I know that every business down here would light up if they heard that news."
"It definitely just would be so helpful for people being able to just take that out of their minds, that they don't have to worry about it coming down here, especially because a lot of our businesses are kind of like, you park, you run in, you grab what you need and you go."
"It really gives that time for people to not have to stress about getting a $30, $40 ticket while they're going into support local."
Hurley noted that the past few years have been challenging for north core businesses.
"It was already a challenging time after COVID for businesses down here," she said. "Rolling out parking enforcement at that time was just an added layer to the many challenges we were already going through."
"Couple that with all the construction happening downtown for the last three summers, it's incredibly hard for businesses down here."
Kara Pratt, executive director of the Waterfront District BIA, said she welcomes the idea of the administration reevaluating the parking system and offering two hours free.
"I think we'll bring more people down and also have people stay a little longer," she said.
"This might actually encourage some more of the restaurants to open up over lunch because people will come down during that time."
The city is also proposing four hours of free parking at the marina, with an option to purchase four more hours after that expires. Greaves said if that change is implemented, it would be in perpetuity.