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Fiscal future part II

Various alternatives to raising taxes

To understand how the municipality reached its current $2.8 million shortfall, a general overview of various contributing factors was given in last week's Pique .

In a nutshell, the municipality's preliminary budgetary shortage has been caused by underperformance in pay parking coupled with higher-than-expected transit fees, the cold reality of build-out, strata hotel tax complications and aging infrastructure maintenance costs.

To ease the situation in part, the municipality needs more people to take the bus while increasing use of pay parking. They collect the revenue from each but to a certain degree, one cancels the other out. If people are parking they are not using transit. If they're putting loonies in fare boxes, they're not in need of parking. Increasing profits in both areas will be tricky, but necessary if the Resort Municipality of Whistler is going to mitigate a rise in taxes.

 

Dollars or environment?

From the outset, pay parking was meant to discourage the use of single occupancy vehicles, encourage carpooling, and support transit affordability and access. That it was also expected to draw a cool $2 million per year into public coffers was a major bonus. However, the public is skirting the user fees and choosing to park anywhere else, and because of this only 46 per cent of anticipated revenue earmarked for transit will be realized. The economic effects don't stop at the municipal government level - some village businesses say that when fewer people choose to park close by to avoid the cost, it has a big ripple effect.

"I would have to say it's a negative thing for my customers. They're having to walk all the way from Pemberton to the village when they park in the winter in slippery ski boots," said Fanatyk Co Bike and Ski co-owner, Scott Humby, who rents a parking spot under the Holiday Inn.

"I drive by the lots every day on my way to work and last Saturday there were 15,000 skier visits and there were like 30 cars in the parking lot, so there's definitely people complaining or they're parking in Creekside rather than the village or they're parking at Base Two instead of the village, which at the end of the day can definitely affect your foot traffic.

Whistler Blackcomb runs both the RMOW-owned pay parking lots and a number of free parking lots near the mountains, including 1,400 spaces at Creekside and Lots 6, 7 and 8. Visitors and locals alike are seeking out these areas instead of paying the $8/day winter fee in Lots 1, 2 and 3. WB President and COO, Dave Brownlie says their free lots have been more than a little busy but he expects things to even out as the season wears on.

"It's still a little early. We've had one weekend and there are lots of people that obviously came down to Creekside and lots of people at Base Two and I think we'll probably see those fill up sooner - that's the reality," he said,

Brownlie was quick to pronounce the merits of RMOW's pay parking spots, indicating that he thinks guests will appreciate their intrinsic value - proximity.

"I think this winter you will see lots of use," he continued. "It's $8 per day and they are prime parking for anybody that wants to come skiing and access the village so I actually think they'll do well this winter."

While it looks that Whistler Blackcomb's main focus - driving traffic to the mountains - conflicts with the RMOW's pay parking plans, Brownlie feels any difference in approach is moderated by the amount of free parking available to skiers. In the end, people walking long distances with heavy ski gear, shopping bags, or children might be the ultimate boon for Lots 1, 2 and 3.

 

Wheels on the bus

It's nothing short of ironic that the pay parking shortfall has put transit funding under the gun - it was initially pitched to residents as a sustainable way to get people out of their cars. That begs the question: shouldn't transit be enhanced as promised instead of maintaining the status quo or even cutting back on frequency and routes?

RMOW Councillor Chris Quinlan said many of the decisions made regarding the bus system will take place after BC Transit conducts a full service review, currently underway. That could lead to a reworking of routes to better sync them with population numbers in summer and winter, as well as the reduction of the frequency of buses in underused areas.

Quinlan mentioned the possibility of running a trunk line through the valley that services smaller busses on arterial routes, which makes more sense then running full size buses on lightly used routes. New fare boxes that improve the collection of user data are expected to help BC Transit better identify how each load is distributed.

"It's that kind of scientific, not anecdotal, information that can allow BC Transit to better assess the service it's providing," said Quinlan. "We want to drive business, we want to drive riders to transit because the best way to cover costs is to increase the revenues... at the same time there are still underperforming routes that probably never will perform the way they should and you want to address those with different strategies to deliver that service.

"As with anything, once you know what your options truly are and what your requirements are then you can make a decision based on that knowledge, so we would be very, very irresponsible if we just were to say 'OK, go and cut $2.3 million out of your service, just do it, when we don't know where the high ridership is, what are the areas that it can grow and what are the areas that really shouldn't be there."

BC Transit is expected to finish its service review in TKTK .

 

How to fill the parking spots?

Treating pay parking as a business is not an option when private competitors like Advanced Parking Systems Ltd. advertise monthly parking stalls in the heart of the village for less than $3/day. That being said, the RMOW's underground parking at the Whistler Conference Centre is even cheaper, though very underutilized. That's a reflection of poor marketing on the municipality's side and a natural public reaction to paying for a service that used to be free.

"We've got to be competitive," said Quinlan. "There is a presentation coming to council that's about a potential pass for the parking lots for residents or workers in the village. The rate on that would be competitive."

The consensus from the RMOW is that growing pains around pay parking will even out eventually, but fewer free parking spots close to the village creates other problems for visitors and workers living outside the community.

"If they're trying to just encourage people to use different modes of transportation where they don't need a vehicle, that's fine but I can tell you right now that there's a great part of our workforce that lives in Pemberton and Squamish and a great percentage of those people make $10 an hour, so they have to give up their first hour of work everyday just so they can park, that's not cool," continued Fanatyk Co's Humby, who suggested a local rate would be an improvement for travelling workers.

"It's already hard enough, they're paying for fuel to get here. Even if they're carpooling it's hard.

Both Humby and village-based Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory owner Scott Grieve think the RMOW should consider lowering the overall parking rates in Lots 1, 2 and 3 but thus far there has been no commitment to the idea from council.

A possible scenario will see implementation of pay parking in Lots 4 and 5 and an lowering of rates across the board. With the loss of those additional two free parking lots, many skiers will likely choose to park elsewhere - like the WB-owned overflow parking on the Timing Flats. So it's clear that something has to give, whether it's the municipality or car-dependent guests and residents remains to be seen.