City pauses plan to extend paid parking hours downtown after new stickers spark confusion

The City of Montreal is backtracking a move by the municipal parking agency to extend parking meter hours downtown after new stickers appeared on meters without prior warning.

The extension would require drivers to pay the meter until 11 p.m. six nights a week.

Ziggy Eichenbaum was on his way to work Friday when he made the discovery.

"I was shocked. I was flabbergasted. How could they do that to downtown?" said Eichenbaum, who owns a business on Crescent Street.

The meter indicates that drivers must pay for parking from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

It's a significant shift from the current hours, particularly on weekends.

Right now, drivers must pay between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

"It's ludicrous," said Eichenbaum, asserting the new hours would be a blow for businesses and a huge hassle for people coming to dine or attend events in the area, including the Bell Centre.

"If you have to go to a hockey game, halfway through the game, if you don't have the app, you're going to try and go outside to pay the meter, and then you can't come back in because it's locked," he said.

In a statement to CTV News on Saturday, the City appeared to walk back on its plans and admit the para-municipal parking agency, l'Agence de mobilité durable, may have jumped the gun.

"Our priority is economic vitality and consultation with our partners. In this case, steps were clearly skipped at the administrative level with the installation of stickers," read the statement.

"We have asked to suspend the operation because adjustments are needed. We will review the entire pricing process and communicate with our partners in due form," it continued.

• Listen on CJAD 800 Radio: Dino Mazzone on Montreal's downtown parking situation

It's a reassuring message for Glenn Castanheira.

The director of Montreal Centre-Ville, the business development corporation (SDC) for downtown, says he was shocked when he learned about the stickers on Friday.

"It's a very curious situation, very confusing, I have to say," he says, adding the lack of communication is uncharacteristic.

"We have a very transparent and constructive relationship with the parking agency," he says.

Castanheira says on-street parking is free in the evenings and Sunday mornings for a reason.

"The purpose of charging a parking fee isn't only to generate revenues for the City. The idea behind it is to encourage a rotation in clientele so that in the peak hours of the day, people don't hog those parking spots, and we can have a maximum rotation and influx of clientele," he said. "Evenings are extremely busy. It's the rotation that isn't as busy in the evenings."

Castanheira hopes to persuade the City to permanently drop the measure and give businesses a break as they recover from the pandemic.