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Winnipeg mayoral candidate Don Woodstock is promising to cap parking costs for post-secondary students at $50 a month if elected.
Woodstock unveiled his student parking plan Thursday, saying students at colleges, universities, vocational schools and theological institutions would be eligible for the monthly pass.
The pass would be valid at any City of Winnipeg-owned parking space, including surface lots, city-run parkades and on-street spaces. Students would register their licence plate using an active student ID and receive a physical dashboard pass.
Woodstock said students already face enough financial pressure.
“Between the soaring tuition, skyrocketing rent and cost of the books, they are already giving everything they can just to get ahead,” he said.
The plan would give students a predictable cost and reduce the need to rush out of class to avoid parking tickets, he said.
Woodstock also wants to increase the supply of parking by converting vacant and abandoned properties into surface lots dedicated to students. The city could work with property owners to find uses for neglected sites, he said.
“We have to find ways and means of taking some of these empty lots, reclaiming them, expropriate them if we have to,” Woodstock said.
A policy statement released by Woodstock argues that adding municipal parking would create competition with private and university-operated lots, potentially driving their rates down. It also says bringing more students downtown could benefit businesses.
University of Manitoba Students’ Union President Heaven Kaur said parking is a significant issue for students.
“We hear it from students every single year,” Kaur said. Some medical students doing clinical rotations have reported paying roughly $300 a month for parking, she said.
Kaur welcomed the focus on the issue, but said she would prefer to see more dedicated student parking in parkades rather than surface lots, particularly near the Bannatyne campus.
She also pointed to unreliable public transit as a factor pushing some students to drive.
“That is one of the underlying causes that is causing students to not want to take the bus and they’re relying on their own cars,” Kaur said.
Woodstock is one of the 12 registered Winnipeg mayoral candidates seeking to unseat incumbent Scott Gillingham in the Oct. 28 civic election.
The others are Mazher Alam, Gagandeep Bawa, Johnny Calderón, Chris Clacio, Tracey Drexler, Brad Gross, Umar Hayat, Kevin Klein, Josh Pagdato, Noah Redden and Michael Vogiatzakis.
Candidates must complete the nomination process in order to appear on the Oct. 28 ballot.