Ottawa spent $460,000 installing a paid parking system at CFB Halifax, following a contentious decision last fall to start charging military members and civilian employees to park.
The six Halifax sites make up the only base in Canada to charge for parking, but a Treasury Board missive may open the door for more urban military sites to do the same.
“For DND establishments located in commercially developed centres, it should be expected that appropriate charges for parking will be established in the near future,” a parliamentary note reads.
A Department of National Defence spokeswoman could not respond by deadline about which other bases might begin charging for parking or when that might happen.
Thousands more soldiers and civilians, however, stand to be affected by such a decision. About half a dozen Canadian Forces bases fall near urban boundaries, including CFB Edmonton, CFB Montreal, CFB Esquimalt, CFB Winnipeg, CFB Toronto and CFS St. John’s.
In Halifax, the order came down after the Treasury Board and the Canada Revenue Agency ruled that parking offered at less than fair market value should be considered a taxable benefit, which sparked protests throughout the summer.
The Library of Parliament note responded to Halifax West MP Geoff Regan about whether Ottawa looked at other options before changing the rules, which now sees members pay between $25 and $110 for a monthly pass to Stadacona, Windsor-Willow Park, Royal Artillery Park, Dartmouth’s Dockyard Annex and the HMC Dockyard
But, according to the parliamentary letter, no other options were explored.
Regan said that’s unacceptable, considering such a change affects more than 7,000 soldiers, sailors and civilian employees at CFB Halifax. And that it has the potential to affect Canadian Forces members across the country.
“It’s shocking that half a million dollars, basically, was spent to install payment infrastructure on the base without considering any alternatives,” Regan said. “It’s incumbent on the minister to say to (staff) ‘What are the alternatives to this?’ and look for those alternatives.”
In fact, the local president for the Union of National Defence Employees said there are other options. One of the easiest would have been for individual service members and employees to claim the benefit on their annual income tax. They could also have opened a “scramble style” parking, which would see more than 7,000 employees would be looking to fill 4,503 spots. Without the guarantee of parking spot, Craig Smith argues it cannot be a taxable benefit.
As for fair market value, you need only to look to the employers on either side of the HMC Dockyard, Smith said; both Irving Shipyard and Halifax Water both offer free parking spots to their workers.
“I don’t understand for the life of me why (DND) would not choose other options, other than to make money,” Smith said.
It’s unclear how long it will take for the Department of National Defence to recoup the costs spent on installing the paid parking system in Halifax or whether those costs are related to infrastructure, software or both — and whether it would cost the same to implement those systems at other bases.
Defence staff were unable to respond to those questions by deadline Friday.
