Toronto Parking Authority reviewing free passes for councillors and others

Thestar.com
December 20, 2018
David Rider

City councillors, former Toronto Parking Authority board members and retirees from the city agency must wait for their free Green P and on-street parking passes -- and may not get them at all.

Toronto Parking Authority directors voted unanimously Wednesday to delay issuance of several categories of passes pending a review. They also ordered TPA staff to examine the long-standing, but recently criticized, freebie and to report back on the practice at next month’s meeting.

The Toronto Parking Authority will end 2018 with a budget shortfall of $4.2 million due to factors including a reduction in on-street parking revenues because of the King St. transit pilot.

The move follows criticism from Mayor John Tory and others after media attention was paid to a routine report asking for board approval of the long list of card recipients, some of whom use the cards for work but also others who get free city parking as a perk.

Tory called the TPA’s justifications for some of the passes “flimsy” and questioned why many of the people, including his council colleagues, need them. Tory, who is usually chauffeured to events, does not get a pass, nor do two councillors -- Michael Ford and Gord Perks -- who decline to receive them.

The report pegs foregone parking revenues at almost $300,000 a year. TPA will end 2018 with a budget shortfall of $4.2 million, according to a report to city council, due to factors including a reduction in on-street parking revenues because of the King St. transit pilot and costs of the Bike Share program that TPA operates.

The board voted to go ahead and issue 46 one-year passes to TPA managers, supervisors and operations staff who, for their duties, require regular access to Green P and surface lots.

Another 211 passes will go to TPA and outside staff who need to access lots, including enforcement officers, landscape and snow removal contractors, and TTC special constables.

But 117 passes, for current and former board members, councillors and some other city officials, and TPA retirees who worked at the agency for 20-plus years, are on hold.

Miroslav Glavic, a member of the public, told board members the passes are “a huge waste of taxpayers’ dollars” and said city councillors can afford their own parking or can take the TTC.

Robin Oliphant, acting TPA president, told the board that use of the cards is tracked and any excessive parking that suggests potential abuse is investigated.

The issue generated no discussion among the three board members except for chair Chris Murray saying passes have “rightfully received a lot of concern.”