Parking meters won't change until the end of the summer, says Plante

The City of Montreal has decided to pause incoming changes to paid parking until the end of the summer – Mayor Valerie Plante told reporters Wednesday her administration doesn’t want to “rush into anything.”

Downtown business owners were “flabbergasted” in April to discover metered hours had been extended.

Existing rules require drivers to pay until 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.

Under the newly-posted rules, the paid period would have remained until 11 p.m. six nights a week, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

The city paused those plans following public backlash. People were frustrated that they’d have to pay for longer period of time, and that the change felt as though it came without adequate warning.

On Wednesday, Plante said her administration is in consultation with business owners, and that the rules would not change until, at least, the end of the summer

“What we’re getting the most is ‘you caught us off guard,’ and that’s why the strategy was wrong, because we didn’t give them predictability,” said the mayor, recalling her conversations with merchants.

She also hinted that changes to parking times could look different from the April rollout.

“We’re open to other adjustments,” she said. “We don’t want to rush into anything, because we already did that.”

“As soon as we have something to share, based on our conversations with business owners, we will share it, for sure,” she added.

Aref Salem, head of the city’s official opposition, criticized the administration’s meter “flip-flops.”

“It was the right thing to do in this file, through which the flip-flops, and the lack of consultations, are generating more and more confusion,” wrote Salem in a post to social media.

Earlier this week, Ensemble Montreal called on the administration to shelf its plans to change the rules, saying it would drive people away from downtown.

“People, they come to Montreal, to the restaurants, to the festivals, and now we’re pushing them back,” Salem said during a press conference on Monday.