Ottawa's mayoral race has a new flashpoint: whether the city should tear out every parking meter on its streets.
The pledge
Mayoral candidate Alex Lawson is promising to remove every single parking meter and pay station in the city and make all on-street parking free if elected. Lawson calls the current system "really a tax on shopping local," arguing that charging drivers to park downtown discourages people from visiting local businesses.
Ottawa currently has 4,337 paid on-street parking spaces, the vast majority of them downtown. That system isn't a money-loser for the city. In 2025, on-street parking brought in $9.78 million in revenue and produced a $2.36 million surplus after costs.
The pushback
That surplus, and the cost of giving it up, is exactly what's fuelling criticism of the plan. In a letter to the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa resident John Edmond called Lawson's proposal "bonkers." Edmond's core argument is about enforcement, not just revenue. Right now, he points out, parking officers only need to check meters that have expired to write a ticket. Edmond argues that enforcement of the current pay-for-time meter regime already eats a substantial share of meter revenue, and switching to a free-but-timed model would only push those costs higher while eliminating the income that offsets them.
Edmond isn't alone in raising concerns. Incumbent Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has come out against the plan, calling it "bad for taxpayers and it's bad for business." Kitchissippi councillor Jeff Leiper has also weighed in, arguing that "paid parking manages demand," a reference to the idea that charging for parking keeps spaces turning over so shoppers, rather than all-day commuters, can find a spot near the businesses they're visiting.
What it means for Ottawa
For residents and business owners in the core, the debate boils down to a trade-off. Lawson's camp says free parking removes a barrier for people who might otherwise skip a trip downtown or to a commercial strip, especially with retailers competing against suburban plazas and online shopping. Critics like Edmond, Sutcliffe and Leiper counter that the city would be trading a program that currently pays for itself, and helps keep parking spots available, for one that costs more to run and could see spaces clogged by longer-term parkers under a looser two-hour limit.
With the surplus, the enforcement mechanics and the downtown business case all now part of the public debate, on-street parking is shaping up to be one of the more concrete policy fights of this year's mayoral campaign. How the two sides resolve the enforcement question, in particular, could determine whether the free-parking pitch is workable or, as Edmond puts it, bonkers.
Sources: Ottawa Citizen (via Yahoo News Canada)
