Does Vancouver’s Proposed Climate Emergency Parking Plan Need Clarity on Purpose, Use?

The Vancouver Sun ran an editorial written by  Dr. Melissa Lem stating that pollution is a problem, the City of Vancouver has a pollution problem, an ambitious City’s Climate Emergency Action Plan needs to be funded, and paying for street curb rent for parking would provide 60 million dollars to the program over four years.

Dr. Lem is a pioneer and early adapter in championing clean air, good mental health and access to green space for all Canadians. She  advocates for and gives “Park Prescriptions” understanding the important link between mental and physical well-being and access to nature.

The Climate Emergency Plan clearly identifies the sources of pollution as 54 percent coming from natural gas in buildings and 39 percent coming from gas and diesel engines. But where is the data showing where those gas and diesel engines originate from, and whether they are from outside the city?  What is the percentage  of vehicles that is regional? And how many vehicles in Vancouver are parked in more remote areas of Vancouver  and of necessity for workers in the region, shift workers and care staff working at night when bus service is not available? Who parks on Vancouver streets and why? How many of these areas have low frequency of transit services?

It is important to clearly identify what is the source of the vehicle  pollution in Vancouver and then figure out the most effective way to address that and to pay for it. Charging people for parking on the street for carbon purposes in Vancouver gives a free pass to the individuals who are parking in private garages and with off street parking. I expect that those would also be the more likely homes of the expensive gas powered massive vehicles that will be continued to be purchased from 2023 to 2040. Housing these vehicles on private property  will escape the $500 to $1,000 annual charge.

Administering a curbside parking program will be very expensive, involve a lot of staff, and the price will increase to market levels over time. Residents in parking permit zones that currently pay for parking requirements have the benefit of keeping outside vehicles from parking in their areas, and obtain that status on a request basis.

There is no mechanism in place to ensure that the monies collected go to climate change as opposed to the City’s general revenue. If you look at the Climate Emergency Action Plan report there’s no policy that the parking funds collected will go towards climate change.

That charge will start at 45 dollars annually  and then rise to on demand  “market rates”. You will be able to park free in the city on residential streets from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. After that, you will need to telephone in for a $3.00 overnight parking charge. This will also augment  the parking revenue that used to be garnered from metering in the downtown area.

There is an additional annual charge if you purchase a large gas powered vehicle with the model year  2023 or later. No gas powered vehicles will be sold in British Columbia after 2040.

People garaging gas SUVs and trucks will most probably be storing them or parking them on their own private property, which gives those people a free pass from paying for the Climate Emergency Action Plan. And that is not equitable.

If the problem that is trying to be solved is revenue for climate change, a tax could be paid as part of property taxes every year. But if the point is to get people to pay rent for parking curbside on the street, call it that.

The point  is to be transparent with the data and for charging for curb space. Air pollution is a regional problem and funding for that should be done on a regional level for clarity and consistency. As less vehicles are gasoline driven some type of funding mechanism needs to replace the 18.5 cents a litre gas tax which provides for transit and accessibility across the region. That is something that needs to be administered across the region, and could come as a service fee attached to annual ICBC license renewal in Metro Vancouver. We need to work towards a co-operative solution with the region.

As reported in The Guardian by Damian Carrington, one quarter of all schools in Great Britain were found to be located in areas with intense small particle pollution, meaning 3.4 million children were being exposed to PM2.5 which damages lungs and enters the blood stream. That particle pollution impacts “asthma, obesity and mental disorders in children“.

This is why data on where those polluting vehicles are from and where they travel would be useful for establishing  funding better transit service across the region. London Great Britain has banned certain polluting vehicles from the city entirely, and charges others to enter the centre city.

Pollution does not stop at the borders of Vancouver.