As Paid Parking commences, the Municipality of Jasper is encouraging residents to register their vehicles so they don’t have to pay to park.

All this week (Monday, May 16) Paid Parking signs are being erected in the downtown vicinity. As soon as they go up, the program is live.

“When the signs are up, it’s on,” said Christine Nadon, Director of Protective and Legislative Services.

To ensure the program rolls out smoothly, MOJ staff are urging Jasperites, regardless of which part of town they live in, to go through the simple but required steps of creating an online account, adding their vehicle to the account and registering their license plate. If residents live in the Paid Parking zone, they’ll have to upload proof of residency showing a street address as well.

“If you live outside of the paid parking and resident parking only zones, photos of your vehicle registration and national park pass gets you approval for a residential permit,” Nadon said. 

In creating the Paid Parking Program, council directed staff to allot 500 hours of free parking for residents. That component of the program will roll out at a future date; in the meantime, as soon as one’s residential parking permit is approved residents are in the clear. 

“Later this month when we launch the credit system, people who are registered will get an email with a code for the account holder,” Nadon said.

Eventually, Jasperites will enter that code into the HotSpot App to cash in their 500 hours of credit.

“Downtown on-street parking is still only for two hours,” Nadon said. 

Most Jasperites will register for their parking permit as a “resident-at-large.” However, residents living in the Paid Parking Zones or in the Resident Parking Only Zones will need to prove as much. Nadon said they can upload a photo of their lease agreement, utility bill or anything else with their name and street address.

Doing so will ensure they don’t face any compliance issues and will also allow them to access the allocated guest parking passes.

Not everybody has a smartphone. To account for this, seniors and those with mobility or technological challenges will be issued an exemption permit; however those folks still need to register. Those who received an exemption permit last year will have that document renewed for 2022; those who haven’t received theirs yet should go online or to the Jasper Activity Centre (between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.) to sign up for the program.

“We want to accommodate our seniors,” Nadon said.

And the MOJ wants to accommodate residents, too, but they need you to help them help you. 

The steps are as follows:

• Create an account with HotSpot (through the app or htsp.ca)
• Add your vehicle to the account
• Go to My Permits > Apply for Residential Permit and upload your vehicle registration and proof of residency in Jasper.

If residents’ vehicles are not registered and are discovered in the Paid Parking Zone they will be subjected to tickets. Last year, to help residents get used to the program, MOJ issued 3,000 warnings and only a handful of tickets. This year that approach is changing, Nadon said.

“We’re not on the hunt but if you’re in non-compliance we will be issuing tickets,” she said.

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com