As some of you heard on the news just before Christmas, CFB Halifax took a more gradual approach to getting rid of seniority restrictions for General Parking in Dockyard and Stadacona by going down to 8 years seniority.
Halifax DND employees prepare to engage in parking wars
http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/halifax-d...wars-1.1596182
CFB Halifax struggles with parking lot scramble
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...mble-1.2471297
Now, as of 1 May 2014, CFB Halifax will now be reducing it further to 5 years seniority for General Parking in Dockyard and Stadacona. The ultimate, seniority-free parking system has to be implemented by 1 September 2014 (the end of the grace period that the CFB Halifax has to get its ultimate parking system in place in accordance with Treasury Board Policy). Also, on 1 September 2014, paid reserved parking in Dockyard, Stadacona and Halifax Armoury will rise to $75/month, while RA Park's parking will rise to $110/month for all parking pass holders that have parking passes for RA Park.
Meanwhile all parking in NAD, Willow Park and the fenced portion of Windsor Park must become paid parking by 1 September 2014 due to the existence of extra parking space relative to the demand that those areas normally get on a daily basis. NAD parking will cost $25/month while Windsor Park and Willow Park parking will cost $40/month.
CFAD, Damage Control Division and the Bedford Rifle Range will remain at $0 (no requirment to have paid parking).
The new DAOD's for parking on National Defence Establishments are located here:
DAOD 1004-0 Parking:
http://www.admfincs.forces.gc.ca/dao...1004-0-eng.asp
DAOAD 1004-1 Parking Administration:
http://www.admfincs.forces.gc.ca/dao...1004-1-eng.asp
It may sound ironic that Stadacona and Dockyard may still have free General Parking, but it's because that, according to Government of Canada Treasury Board Policy that's cited in the above DAOD's, there's no Fair Market Value (FMV) for parking that's open to a parking demand that routinely exceeds the parking supply on a daily basis. NAD, Willow Park and Windsor Park have assessed FMV's while having General Parking demand that only partially fills their General Parking lots, thereby forcing CFB Halifax to invoke the FMV on all parking in those areas, regardless if it's Reserved (assigned parking) or General (unassigned parking).
There is a hitch though. There are many residential side streets that currently have free, unrestricted parking near NAD, Willow Park and Windsor Park. The new paid parking requirements that are coming for NAD, Willow Park and the fenced in part of Windsor Park may lead to many DND personnel diverting their parking onto these city streets near those areas in order to
boycott paid parking without having to switch to another mode of transport, until such time that HRM ever implements time-restricted parking or paid-permit parking during normal working hours to dissuade parking tie-ups on the affected city streets.
If DND decided to have "free" parking for parking spots that have FMV's, it would be considered a taxable benefit. The issue with that is if people who don't need a parking pass are taxed, which, in my opinion would be grossly unfair, unless they have it such that only those who have applied for a parking pass are taxed (parking pass control would still be required for this). The advantage of having parking done as a taxable benefit ("free" parking) is that an employee who has a parking pass would only really pay for the income tax on the FMV that's "effectively" added to the employee's income, which, for example, would translate into an income tax payment of about $15-20 a month for a parking spot that has an FMV of $40/month (assuming Nova Scotia's grossly high income taxes).
So, a taxable parking benefit would be effectively cheaper for the users of the FMV parking than having to pay the monthly FMV parking fee outright. However, DND considers having FMV parking as a taxable benefit instead of as paid parking to be cumbersome, especially for a base like CFB Halifax that's fragmented across multiple campuses that have different FMV's.
The last that I have also heard from the news before Christmas is that the civilian union in DND is opposed to having to pay for parking. (I suspect the comparison in true costs to users of parking spots with assessed non-zero FMV's of the expected monthly income tax payment, compared to the monthly parking fee payment the would otherwise be charged, is a large reason behind the civilian union in DND being opposed to paid parking.) I took note of how the President of the Nova Scotia National Defence Employees Union talked on CTV News in December 2013 about how the Treasury Board is dictating the running of the entire Government of Canada as part of its much-dreaded DRAP (Deficit Reduction Action Plan)
Cheers,
Richard Kannegiesser