Remembrance Day is coming, but veterans in Burnaby will have to pay for parking in city-owned spaces and lots like everyone else as they attend services.
That's something local resident Michael Schultz would like to see change.
He wrote a letter to mayor and council last month calling on them to adopt a bylaw that would allow vehicles and motorcycles with veteran plates to park for free in the city.
"As we approach Remembrance Day, I encourage the city council to consider enacting this proposal as a positive gesture to the veteran community," he wrote in an Oct. 23 letter that was released on the city's website this week.
Schultz said the bylaw would put the city in line with neighbouring municipalities that already have free parking for veterans, including Vancouver, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey and New Westminster.
Vancouver amended its parking meter bylaw in 2021 to add free parking for any vehicle bearing a veteran's or Memorial Cross licence plate, after a 2020 pilot convinced staff the move would result in "no material impacts" on parking revenue, according to a 2021 report to Vancouver city council.
Burnaby offered free parking to veterans for two years starting in 2005, the Year of the Veteran and the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
In a January 2007 report, however, staff told council there were concerns about a "continuing impact on parking revenue."
The report estimated the city would lose $8,000 a year if it continued with free parking for all veterans and $5,000 annually if it restricted free veterans parking to Burnaby residents.
Council directed staff to prepare a policy based on bylaws in Richmond and White Rock, where only local residents with veterans plates got free parking at the time.
It's unclear what happened to that direction, however, since Burnaby currently offers no free parking to veterans.
Schultz's letter has been forwarded to Burnaby's chief administrative officer, general manager of corporate services, director of legislative services and the general manager of engineering.
And city staff are in the process of "working through options" for veteran parking in Burnaby, according to the city's public affairs department .
Public affairs officer Cole Wagner told the Burnaby NOW staff will present a report to council in the new year for their consideration.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
Email [email protected]
