A parking machine along King Street in Saint John. (Staff photo)
The Saint John Parking Commission will be no more as of Oct. 1, but residents are not expected to notice any changes.
Council voted last week to dissolve the commission and transfer its operations — and employees — to the city.
It follows a similar decision earlier this year that saw the city take over the management of Saint John Transit operations.
“It makes sense in a way for the size of the city of Saint John at 67, 68,000 people to move that operation into the city,” Mayor Donna Reardon said in a phone interview.
The move is part of the city’s sustainability initiatives to “improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization and to review the city’s agencies, boards and commissions.”
Reardon said there has always been a synergy between parking and transit, which had operated as a single board for several years.
The CEO positions for the Saint John Transit Commission and the Saint John Parking Commission had also been amalgamated into one.
In the case of Saint John Transit, the commission remains in place to provide strategic direction and budgetary approval for transit services, among other things.
Reardon said moving the services in-house will give the city “more horsepower” to support transit and parking.
“It will have another set of eyes on the whole system, as well, from a financial perspective,” she said.
According to the mayor, city taxpayers currently subsidize about 60 per cent of the overall transit costs.
Reardon, who has served on the transit commission for the past nine years, said she believes both of these moves make sense.
“If I didn’t think either one of these were good moves, I would not be going along with this,” she said.
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