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Responsibility for Parking Policy


DATE: March 14, 1997

TO: Functional Heads - Administration

CC: Functional Heads - Finance/ Heads of Personnel

SUBJECT: Responsibility for Parking Policy

On December 12, 1996, the Treasury Board rescinded its Parking Policy and the 1994 freeze on parking charges. This means that custodian departments and agencies are now responsible for setting parking rates for government owned or leased properties. The main custodian departments are Public Works and Government Services Canada, National Defence, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Departments will still be responsible to determine their operational requirements, however.

The Treasury Board has also agreed that the Secretariat should issue 'once only' guidelines to provide general direction on parking facilities occupied by the Crown. Departments should follow the guidelines below in carrying out their respective responsibilities.

The decision of the Treasury Board is in keeping with the Secretariat's new direction. We are gradually moving away from detailed central controls towards the role of facilitating and providing general direction.

Parking Guidelines

I - Employees' Responsibility for

Transportation

Government employees are normally expected to pay their commuting costs. Nevertheless, departments will assess whether it is appropriate to charge parking fees to employees with a permanent disability who are certified unable to use public transit. In addition, departments may assess the appropriateness of exempting employees from paying parking fees when these employees are regularly required to use their cars for government business or when a significant portion of an employee's regularly scheduled hours of work fall outside the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. time period (i.e., shift workers).

Members of the Executive Group (EXs) and Governor-in-Council appointees will continue to be eligible for a special rate as part of their terms and conditions of employment. Their parking spaces are not necessarily included under the "operational needs" described below.

II - Meeting Operational Needs

Departments will provide only the parking spaces needed to meet their operational requirements. Custodian departments are required to meet only the minimum operational requirements of departments, specifically, parking for the government's auto fleet, for shift workers, for visitors or clients (where commercial lots are not available or convenient), to meet specific

  • conditions related to operations in non-central or remote locations, and to meet the requirements of municipal by-laws if applicable.
  • When there is excess parking capacity, custodian departments should assess the merits of disposing of it. Maintaining a ratio between the number of parking spaces and the size of the departmental workforce is discouraged as a criterion for determining operational needs.

III - Application of Parking Fees

Custodian departments will set the fees at market value, in accordance with the Treasury Board Revenue Policy. Market value is determined by local market conditions and would normally take into account the availability and cost of commercial parking, the availability of public transit and the practices of other employers in the immediate vicinity.

In some cases, a gradual increase of the parking fees over a reasonable period may be appropriate if a sudden fee increase could cause hardship.

IV - Other Considerations

To ensure a consistent approach, departments and agencies and custodian departments in the same building or located in the immediate vicinity are encouraged to consult with each other.

Changes to parking fees should be introduced only aftersufficient advance notice (i.e., advance notice of weeks rather than days) has been given to employees and their representatives. If employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are involved, consultations on current arrangements and prices charged are required under the Electronics Group (EL) collective agreement. The parties involved in the consultations are the employing and custodian departments and the bargaining agent. The IBEW business agent can be reached at 1-800-267-4163.

In determining eligibility for or the allocation of parking spaces where special circumstances exist, departments should adopt processes that are fair, and equitable, and that consider environmental incentives.

I trust the guidelines will provide the direction needed for a smooth transition. Please note that the current government financial policies and practices, the current administrative and financial relationships between user and custodian departments, and the current practice of payroll deductions remain, for the present, unchanged by this decision.

Requests for information and questions arising from this decision should be addressed to the real property management services unit of your custodian department.

Marcia Clement




Director,
Safety, Health, Employee Benefits
and Services Group

[ Letter sent to Deputy Ministers and Heads of Agencies on March 26, 1997]