Thunder Bay businesses are breathing a sigh of relief after Thunder Bay city council approved changes to the Parking Authority Financial Plan on Monday.
Drivers can now enjoy complimentary two hours of on-street parking throughout Thunder Bay, with an option to purchase an additional two hours at the same space. This is in effect until Dec. 31, 2027.
Drivers will also have four hours of free parking at Marina Park with an opportunity to purchase an additional four hours in that same space.
Keri Greaves, the city’s treasurer and commissioner of corporate services, said that drivers are encouraged to use the Passport Parking Canada app or a pay machine to register their complimentary parking. If they park at a metered space, parking enforcement officers will manually monitor when vehicles are parked at complimentary spaces.
“Offering complimentary parking will help support local businesses throughout Thunder Bay’s downtown cores, along with the Westfort and Bay and Algoma business districts,” Greaves told The Chronicle-Journal.
“The program will also provide valuable insights into drivers’ parking habits, which help shape future parking pricing strategies.”
Jamie Taylor, chief executive officer of the Community Economic Development Commission, said increased metered parking was identified by small businesses as a barrier to customers.
“Given that the parking barrier has now been lifted for two hours, we would hope this would change customers’ spending in the businesses that were directly impacted,” Taylor said.
Aldo Ruberto, with the Fort William Business Improvement Area said the parking change is “fantastic,” and that it should have been done a long time ago.
“This is great for the business community. It’s great for the clients and great for shoppers that stopped coming downtown on Saturdays because they no longer had free parking,” he said.
Ruberto added that hopefully, people don’t abuse it.
Kara Pratt, executive director of the Waterfront Business Improvement Area, said she is also hopeful that they will see more people coming downtown and taking the opportunity to support the small businesses.
“We’ve been through two and a half years of construction, and before that was COVID,” she said. “The construction has been hard, so the parking relief is going to help.”
She added that if people want to park down at the marina, they can come up and support the small businesses in the waterfront district.
“They can enjoy a nice walk in the park and not have to worry if they take some time to come up here and support the small businesses or enjoy one of our restaurants up here,” she said.
Pratt also reminds people that patio season is starting in Thunder Bay.
“We have a lot of applications that have come in, and as Red River Road is being completed, we are seeing the patios be completed too,” she said. “Within the next week or so, we should be able to sit outside and enjoy some great food and beverages and right now the Red Lion Smokehouse patio is open.
John Murray, owner of the Red Lion restaurant and part of the Waterfront Business Improvement Area executive, called the complimentary parking “amazing” for any businesses downtown.
“We all want to show off our newly developed streetscape here on Red River Road, so any chance to get people downtown and shopping in all these great shops down here, and anything that makes it easier for customers to do that is great,” he said.
