Council Set To Tackle Downtown Parking Meter Problems

The cost of vandalism and theft from parking meters is set to hit home on Tuesday afternoon as Council discusses options how to deal with the financial losses.

The losses for the first quarter of this year are estimated to be $113,000 below budget due to the coin operated meter problems.

At their regular meeting on Tuesday afternoon Council will be asked to approve the expenditure of $200,000 for a city-wide data based (smartphone) and credit/debit card system.

In December 2025 at a special Council meeting it was agreed to double the the cost of parking from $1 per hour to $2 per hour.

This after 819 parking meters - 82 percent of all coin meters - were out of service. It leaves approximately 179 coin operated meters still functional.

The functional parking meters have been consolidated to Main Street.

The large number of out of service coin operated parking meters has been attributed to thefts and vandalism allegedly by “street people” and the “homeless”.

A broken coin operated parking meter is a common site downtown - MJ Independent photo

Doing nothing could mean losing $35,000 monthly to city coffers.

Administration is recommending Council approve a $200,000 Request For Proposal (RFP) to expand the present smartphone (virtual) system.

The $200,000 RFP is necessary because of security concerns due to liability and cybersecurity.

Additionally $5,000 would be used to communicate the changes to the general public.

Costing for a pay station system

Source - City of Moose Jaw report

Another proposal looked at by Administration was a pay station model.

Administration reported that such a move to cover the entire area served by parking meters downtown would cost around $1 million.

Although mentioned in their report chalking tires and then ticketing after two hours issuing tickets - presently being sporadically done by the City’s lone parking Commissionaire - is not recommended by Administration.

This system is being utilized by many communities after they eliminated parking meters decades ago in their downtowns.

The issue is slated to be discussed at this Tuesday afternoon’s regular Council meeting.