Message from Mississauga Ward 1 Councillor Jim Tovey regarding new Port Credit pay parking structure

The following message from Jim Tovey is from Facebook; I am pleased to share it with you:

Many people have been comparing the new Port Credit pay parking structure to Clarkson and Streetsville. Respectfully, this is not an accurate comparator. Port Credit has become a destination in the past few years. Our festivals, culture and waterfront attract well over a million visitors a season now, and growing. A more accurate visitor comparison would be Harbourfront in Toronto, which as we know has much higher parking rates plus parking garages.

This study has been ongoing for more than three years and has had many Public meetings, as well as engaging the Port Credit BIA who supported the changes.

I do understand people being upset, no one, myself included likes any increases in anything. Here is the point.

Our previous parking operation was not adequate to control parking on side streets, or on Lakeshore.

Our previous parking operation was resulting in taxpayers dollars subsidizing parking operations in Port Credit.

Our previous parking operation could not provide us the funds to build a parking garage for the village. 16 to 20 million plus land.

All of the additional revenue stays in the Port Credit parking account to be used to purchase more parking land and build parking garages.

My residents have for the past six years expressed their dissatisfaction with the parking situation on their streets and that they are subsidizing people who do not live here with their taxes.

I agree with my residents and the fairness of a user pay system

Here is why

We will now be able to control parking more efficiently

Parking spaces will turn over more quickly, we have already seen this effect. That is actually good for business.

We will be able to issue street parking permits for local resident

We will be able to have restricted parking on residential streets to provide more on street parking for people who live in Port Credit.

The streets around the GO station have already become unclogged

Our taxpayers will not be subsidizing parking for people who do not live here.

The parking funds are dedicated to finally building a suitable parking garage for Port Credit.

Our taxpayers will not be footing the bill for the parking garage.

The side benefits are:

More people will be taking Public Transit to visit us.

We will be able to increase bus service on the Lakeshore 23 Route to every ten minutes.