On July 22, city council discussed its support for the upcoming 2025 Midwest Shriners Association Conference which will be held in Moose Jaw thanks to efforts from the Shriners director general Aaron Ruston earlier this year.
One element of the city’s support — which also includes $50,000 worth of in-kind support on behalf of the City of Moose Jaw — is a free parking pass for registered conference guests.
Coun. Dawn Luhning, who also brought up concerns over the planned safety meeting to be held on July 29, warned that the parking pass — although intended to support downtown businesses — may come as a hindrance instead.
She said several business owners had problems in the past because “people park all day in front of their businesses” and this potentially hinders customer’s access to their shops.
The upcoming Shriners Convention planned for two dates in 2025 is anticipated to bring hundreds of attendees to Moose Jaw from across the region. Ruston, who spoke to city council on July 22, said the conference will bring people who “would never normally come here” and said the event will benefit the local economy.
“I will not vote against the motion,” Luhning said, “but I want it to be publicly known that I am not in favour of that part. I don’t believe downtown businesses will be in favour of it either if people park in front of their businesses all day long.”
Luhning confirmed that she’s in favour of the upcoming Shriners convention, but also said she doesn’t want to undo any progress made in support of local downtown businesses. Her position was backed by Coun. Heather Eby who made a similar point.
“If there’s something else we can do (regarding the parking situation), I’m fully behind everything else,” Luhning said during council. “I just don’t feel we can award a free parking pass… (and at the same time) take away from other things we’ve done downtown.”
After the Moose Jaw Express spoke with several downtown business owners about the issue, the consensus appears to be in favour of the upcoming convention — and any similar events which bring new visitors to the city — but with downtown parking already limited by default, these owners would prefer not to add to the parking dilemma.
One owner described downtown parking as being consistently “tight,” and another pointed to a parking meter in front of their shop that’s been broken for around six months. She said it appears to be used for free parking, and a shared concern is that — just as with this meter — freely issued parking tickets could be abused rather than used for quick in-and-out shopping.
One suggestion Coun. Luhning made was to have tires chalked to ensure vehicles awarded with a free parking pass don’t sit in one location for extended periods of time.
A few other ideas brought up by downtown business owners include limiting the free parking pass to four hours per spot, and at least one owner backed the idea of having the parking passes be valid for the city hall parking lot exclusively.
Another concern shared by several business owners was how consistently free parking passes are being issued.
“I love the Shriners to pieces, but why would it be one group over the other (that gets awarded the free passes),” one manager said. “Like, why not (issue similar passes) for Christmas in October?”
The idea behind the downtown parking pass, Coun. Crystal Froese said, is to encourage visitors to support local business.
“(Visitors) have such a huge amount of impact for our businesses,” she said. As well, she said Moose Jaw is now “on the map” for events such as the upcoming Shriners convention and suggested that a standardized policy be created to best handle — among other things — downtown parking concerns.
