A downtown Ottawa church is fighting against new parking regulations that will force parishioners to pay for parking on Saturdays or risk getting ticketed and fined.
In May,
Ottawa city council approved a plan to extend paid parking
in neighbourhoods where parking demand is more than 80 per cent. Under this new plan, motorists will have to pay for parking until 9 p.m. on weekends and weekdays in
the ByWard Market
, King Edward Avenue and parts of Little Italy (Preston Street south of Highway 417 as well as on the immediately adjacent side streets) that meet the threshold.
The plan also introduced paid parking on Saturdays in parts of Centretown, Little Italy South and Glebe South.
Staff wrote in a report to the city’s public works and infrastructure committee earlier this year that the
new parking regulations
will encourage turnover and make more parking spaces available at any given point in time.
But Father Stephen Amesse, a rector at Saint Patrick Basilica on Kent Street, is pushing back.
Under the new regulations, parishioners who park on Gloucester and Nepean streets will now have to pay for parking if they are attending events or mass on Saturday. Bylaw officers started enforcing the new rules in early October.
Amesse said he’s confused by the decision because there aren’t many commercial businesses in the area.
“Why Nepean Street? It makes absolutely no sense,” he told the Ottawa Citizen.
The changes will have an impact on the church and parishioners.
Around 200 people attend Saturday mass alone, according to Amesse. The church also hosts a lot of events (weddings, funerals, etc.) on Saturdays because it allows more people to come.
In addition to the events and mass, 50 to 60 people visit the church for confessions every Saturday afternoon.
Amesse said the parish was never consulted about the changes. The church’s parking lot can only hold about 30 vehicles and the parking lot at St. Patrick’s Adult School, which is available to churchgoers after 3 p.m. on Saturday, has limited space.
Even if all the cars held four to five passengers, not even a quarter of the basilica would be filled.
“They claimed they sent an email to us, which we never received. I had a political career on Parliament Hill before I became a priest. I ran for city council in 1991. If I had seen an email from the City of Ottawa about parking, I would have responded,” he said.
“I’ve also talked to our neighbors. We have a townhouse complex behind us. I’ve talked to people in condominiums. Nobody was consulted on this.”
It’s not just local parishoners who will be affected. The church attracts people from as far as Smiths Falls to the west and Cumberland to the east.
The church hosted a wedding for a couple who flew in from California earlier this month, Amesse added.
“This facility attracts a lot of people. Obviously, selfishly, our concern is that if people get tickets, they’re not going to come anymore, and that that’s not only harmful for us, that’s harmful for the city,” he said.
“A lot of people on Saturday stick around and they go to restaurants, they go for a walk. … We should be encouraging people to come downtown. We shouldn’t be penalizing them, and that’s what (the city is) doing.”
Amesse and other parish members have been proactive and are telling people about the changes whenever they can.
For example, Amesse included this issue in a message to parishioners near the end of Sunday mass and encouraged everyone to email their city councillors.
“The report to council clearly states that places of worship were consulted, which means that the decision to extend parking fees here on Nepean and Gloucester was based on misleading information and this decision must be reconsidered. We should all be concerned that our city council is making decisions on our behalf due to information that is flawed and disingenuous,” he said to people sitting in the pews Sunday afternoon.
“I appreciate that this is not the most important issue facing the world today, but if we don’t speak up now, what about the next time? What about the next issue? Ultimately, are parishioners of Saint Patrick not allowed to have a voice? Do we deserve to be heard? Only we can answer that question.”
The rector also disagreed with online comments saying the church doesn’t get to raise concerns about the issue because it doesn’t pay municipal taxes.
“I wonder if these same people would argue that as the homeless or the refugee pay no tax, we shouldn’t assist them. But the fact is, we do pay municipal tax. We pay tax on the rectory, parking lot and laneway, and the church pays for municipal services. My dog Joey paid for his dog licence,” Amesse told parishioners.
“What we would have paid in taxes has been donated to assist those in need in this ward. That money has come from the sacrifices and generosity of the people of this parish, some of whom donate more, dare I suggest, than many who have argued we have no right to raise concerns.”
Amesse hopes Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and councillors will revisit the new parking restrictions in the neighbourhood. He said he’s spoken with someone from the mayor’s office about this issue and sent emails to Somerset ward Coun. Ariel Troster’s office.
“The mayor’s director of communications said (Sutcliffe) is going to encourage staff to be more proactive in consulting. That’s great news from now on, but it doesn’t really help us right now,” Amesse said.
“I had also suggested that the mayor or somebody puts together a motion asking for council to revisit this. They explained that as chair of council, that’s not really his responsibility, and I get that. But as of today, we have not heard anything from our city councillor, and it’s been two weeks.”
The rector said he also spoke to a bylaw officer about the issue.
“We met with a representative from the city’s (Bylaw and Regulatory Services), and he explained what was happening. We had asked for an exemption. We were left with the impression, maybe wrongly, that our concerns were going to be heard. And the next thing you know, I see stickers on the parking meters that Saturday parking now takes effect,” Amesse said.
For now, Amesse said he is going to continue to talk to community members and wait for a response from Troster’s office.
“We’ll wait to see when we get the response from the city councilor, and we’ll take it from there. I’m also planning to speak to some of our neighbors and see what else we can do. There’s always hope,” he said.
“I’m very hopeful that she’s receiving the information from myself and from our parishioners, and that she will do the right thing and ask council to revisit this decision, because we were not consulted.”
The Ottawa Citizen has reached out to Troster’s office with a request for comment.
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