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An environmental group has petitioned to remove the free parking spots in Montreal.

The Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal (CRE-Montreal) issues 23 recommendations that will help enhance mobility within the city. One of the recommendations is that Montreal should start charging money for its currently free parking spots.

Blaise Rémillard is in charge of the group’s projects related to urbanism and mobility. Rémillard thinks the move is good for the economy and the environment. As per Rémillard, this initiative makes sense for commerce, as well as for Montreal residents wanting peaceful streets where they can walk to work.

According to CRE-Montreal, the annual cost per parking space to the city is $1,275. The group calculates that Montreal could gain $573.7 million per year from its 450,000 free parking spots.

Rémillard feels this is a huge waste of money. It is worth half a billion annually, or one hundred times what we spend on aiding Montreal’s homeless population, he says.

According to Rémillard, tariffs would be introduced gradually, beginning in areas with adequate public transportation, like Charlotte Whyte’s neighborhood of Plateau-Mont-Royal.

Whilst Whyte agrees that it’s a wonderful concept and that more people should be aware of it, she argued that the real perpetrators are these massive corporations that release tons and tons of CO2 year. Yet the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) deems charging for the currently free parking spots in Montreal, “excessive”.

Currently, what we need more of is individuals using public transportation, which should be the priority, according to Michel Leblanc, President and CEO of CCMM. According to him, we should not levy new levies on automobile owners simply because they require a car.

According to the City of Montreal, such a step is unlikely to be implemented in the near future.

Also Read: Free Parking Spots in Singapore: The State of Parking

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