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REMINDER: North Island College to review paid parking next week

REMINDER: North Island College’s Board of Governors will discuss the issue of paid parking at its Comox Valley campus at its Sept. 28 meeting.
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The NIC Comox Valley campus will review its paid parking policies. Photo by Scott Strasser.

REMINDER: North Island College’s Board of Governors will discuss the issue of paid parking at its Comox Valley campus at its Sept. 28 meeting.

The decision by NIC to review its parking policies came after Island Health announced on Sept. 1 that it would rescind paid parking at its new north island hospitals in the Comox Valley and Campbell River. The new hospital in Courtenay is located right next to NIC.

Island Health had originally planned to implement paid parking at the new hospitals but faced backlash from the public for doing so.

Read more: Island Health rescinds pay parking at new hospital

NIC administrators said Island Health’s announcement is what spurred the college to review its own paid parking policies. NIC implemented paid parking in spring 2016.

“Obviously, the fact that the hospital was [originally] going to have pay parking was a serious consideration for us,” said NIC president John Bowman in an interview with the Record earlier this month. “If that’s not going to occur, we need to spend some time reflecting on our own situation.”

“It’s ultimately the Board of Governors’ decision.”

According to a 2016–17 report, revenue totaled $221,673 in NIC’s first fiscal year of having paid parking, while expenses were $317,669, (including a one-time startup cost of $195,077). Revenues from parking go towards funding parking operations and lot/roadway infrastructure maintenance.

Bowman admitted that implementing paid parking was “probably the most unpopular thing” the college had done.

Read more: NIC to review pay parking.

“North Island College’s decision to charge for parking was several years in the making and was based on a number of factors. Obviously, the adjacency of the new Comox Valley hospital to our campus was a primary factor in the decision,” wrote Bowman in his September president’s newsletter.

“However, it was not the only one. Provincial government funding and policies, college fiscal resource constraints, costs for parking lot maintenance and environmental sustainability goals were other important factors.”

NIC administrators at the Comox Valley campus said they will conduct a review of its parking policies by Sept. 25. They will present that info to the Board of Governors on Sept. 28.

The Sept. 28 Board of Governors meeting takes place in Port Alberni. According to Bowman’s newsletter, whatever decision the board makes could come into effect as early as Oct. 1.