Audio: Kwantlen Chronicle podcast, volume two

[audio:podcast_2.mp3]

Talysa Dhahan and Brian Russell discuss parking at the Surrey campus, and listen to what students have to say about the situation, as well as covering the CIBC Run for the Cure, which took place on Oct. 3.

Video: Kwantlen students paying more to park

Translink’s parking tax increase has raised the price students have to pay to park at Kwantlen campuses. Josh Saggau and Hayley Woodin explain what it means for students and talk to students to see how it’s affecting them.

New Translink tax means emptier pockets for students

Kwantlen students got slapped with a parking-fee increase when they went back to school from their winter break on Monday, Jan. 4.

Parking rates have risen from $2.75 for every four hours to $3.25. For all-day parking at any of the campuses, it now costs students $4.75 instead of the $4.

Julian Jones, vice-president of business development at Impark, said the company isn’t collecting any extra revenue from the increase as it’s a result of a tax-hike introduced by Translink. He does, however, admit that “sometimes numbers have to be tweaked for a more user-friendly method of payment.”

The tax that Impark now pays to Translink, which took effect Jan. 1, has risen from seven per cent to 21 per cent and is a 300 per cent jump from 2009.

“Since the tax on $1 is 21 per cent, we can’t really charge 21 cents on that. It has to be something more convenient, like 25 cents,” said Jones. Gordon Lee, Kwantlen’s vice-president of finance and administration, said that students can expect another fee increase when the HST (harmonized sales tax) comes into effect in July.

“Kwantlen has been working with Impark for about 10 years and they’ve managed the lot since they won [the rights to the lots] through a bid,” said Lee. “The cost [of parking] goes towards servicing the lot. There are no revenues that the school collects.”

According to Lee, about 15 years ago, students didn’t have to pay to park on campus, but they had to start charging for parking “as the budget got tighter.”

“The thing is,” said Lee, “we don’t get money to make parking lots. But it is required that schools have parking lots that are safe and maintained.”

Parking fees hiked to ‘keep standards,’ promote transit use

Kwantlen students who drive to school but don’t have parking permits have seen a small hike in parking rates.

Both daily and four-hour parking fees have increased by 25¢, with daily parking costing students $4, and a four-hour fee now $2.75. Weekly e-permits are now $13, up $1, and carpool semester permits have risen $5 to $82.50. Unreserved and reserved semester permits have been increased $5 and $10, and now cost $95 and $165 respectively. There have been no changes made for two-semester permits.

“Comparative to all other colleges around the area, like BCIT, Capilano, Douglas and Langara, we are still relatively low with the parking rates,” said Sandy Kwan, reporting and systems accounting analyst in Kwantlen. “Just because our rates are relatively cheaper compared to all other colleges…that was the main reason [for the increase].”

Even with Kwantlen’s new status as a university, Kwan explains that the institution was comparing parking rates with other polytechnic universities, such as BCIT, rather than larger universities like UBC and SFU, whose rates “are still quite a bit more.”

“We want just to keep our standards with all the other colleges, too,” Kwan said.

Kwan said another reason Kwantlen decided on the increase was the number of students who park without paying. “[Students] would just park without a parking ticket or without a parking pass and they would probably get one ticket every few months. So in relation, it was still cheaper to get the ticket rather than buy the parking pass,” said Kwan.

Kwantlen is also hoping increased parking fees will promote public transportation. “By increasing the rates, people will more likely be taking transit…there are more and more cars each year on the road, and if some were to take transit, that would free up space,” said Kwan.

The increased rates will also help pay for parking improvements in the Surrey and Cloverdale campuses, Kwan said.