Visitors may have to pay more for parking in Jasper this summer should council approve new rates presented on Tuesday (February 24, 2026).

The rates would go from $4.50 to $7 per hour for on-street, $3.50 to $7 per hour for parking lots and $17 to $28 for a full day in a lot. Committee of the Whole recommended that council adopt the proposed rates for the 2026 summer season.

Councillor Danny Frechette said the proposed rates would help decrease congestion downtown and provide the Municipality with much-needed revenue.

“This is certainly a step in the right direction,” Frechette said. “It helps to mitigate some of our parking issues and maybe gets a little more support to our transit system that will help people visit downtown and leave their cars elsewhere.”

Council has increased the rates multiple times since paid parking began in 2021. The seasonal program is the Municipality’s main means of getting revenue from visitors, who put an added strain on municipal services and infrastructure. Residents are exempt from paid parking.

Paid parking generated $1.39 million last year, according to administration. For 2026, council’s revenue target is $1.8 million.

“We believe that this recommended approach is conservative enough that we should be able to meet the revenue target, even if there were some kind of disruption at some point during the peak summer season,” said CAO Bill Given.

The proposal only increases the rates and does not expand the paid parking zones or change the overall program.

“This maintains consistency,” Given said. “We’re quite familiar with this approach, and this would be [a] very easy implementation.”

He added how Jasper’s new rate would remain $5 per hour lower than Banff’s peak-season rate and equivalent to Banff’s winter rate.

Staff also chose to make the on-street and off-street rates the same while providing a discount for the full-day rate.

Mayor Richard Ireland warned that this approach would make visitors less incentivized to park outside the busy downtown area.

“I am concerned about visitor paid parking becoming only a revenue tool and not a parking management tool,” he said.

Christine Nadon, director of Protective and Legislative Services, said the incentive to park elsewhere was the two-hour limit for on-street parking.

Ireland also floated the idea of getting residents to use an app to clock-in and clock-out when parking. This would allow the Municipality to calculate the lost revenue from offering free parking for residents.

Nadon explained there may be a “friction cost” should they attempt this, and the Municipality would likely have to wait until 2027 to implement such a program.

Coun. Ralph Melynk asked if the Municipality should install more kiosks.

“I believe if you provide more opportunities for compliance, we’ll generate more revenue,” Melynk said.

Given replied that a vast majority of revenue comes through the app. Administration later confirmed that only five per cent of revenue came through kiosks last July, and new kiosks would cost $15,000 each.

Council will return to this matter at next week’s meeting.

Peter Shokeir, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter // info@thejasperlocal.com