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The city is extending the paid-parking hours in a large chunk of the Old Montreal and the downtown core so that drivers who park on the street in those areas will have to feed the meter until 11 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
The paid times for those spots are currently 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 9 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Here are the new paid-parking hours taking effect on Nov. 15:
- Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Saturday: 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- Sunday: No change, hours will remain between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
You can check out the map below to see which areas will be affected by the changes.
Sophie Mauzerolle, the executive committee member responsible for transport and mobility, said in a statement Friday that the extension of the paid-parking hours will be “more in line with the opening hours of the various businesses and cultural institutions and aims not only to increase turnover, but also the availability of on-street parking spaces.”
The city had previously attempted to extend the paid parking hours in Old Montreal but backtracked after receiving backlash. Mauzerolle said at the time that the new parking rules were not supposed to be applied before Montreal consulted merchants’ associations.
This time, she said in the statement, they “took the time to meet with our downtown partners to present the objectives of these new measures and to listen to their comments.”
The changes to the parking rules also include an extension of the time a car can remain parked in a single spot from three hours to five hours.
The exact area targeted by the parking changes includes some of the city’s busiest tourist areas in and around Old Montreal, including the Old Port area.
Mauzerolle said that after the discussions with stakeholders, the city agreed not to change the paid parking hours on Sundays.
“What happened in the spring wasn’t the best way to do things,” she said. “We’re really sorry about that because that’s not how we work usually.”
She said the parking changes are intended to keep drivers moving. Too many people were currently paying the last hour on the parking meter and then leaving their car overnight.
“By putting a [price] we encourage the rotation of cars and this is something that is really good for economic vitality,” she said. “What has been proven time and time again is that when you put a [price] on street [parking] it encourages people to move so there’s more people getting into businesses.”
Aref Salem, the leader of Ensemble Montreal, the official opposition party at city hall, compared the increase to a tax on people who drive in the affected area and said it will have a negative impact on businesses that rely on their patrons driving downtown.
“This decision will really touch residents in the area,” he said. “It will touch all cultural activities in the area and it will certainly touch restaurants.”
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