Parking kiosk in Halifax (Photo: Steve MacArthur)
The city is expanding free parking hours in a bid to help downtown businesses.
Starting Thursday, there’s free parking in paid zones after 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays until September 10.
They’re also spending $184,000 on a new parking program.
As part of the program, 200 downtown businesses are getting tablets for parking validation and training to use them.
The city is also covering the 10-cent transaction fees for the HotSpot parking app, as well as creating a marketing plan for it.
Halifax parking enforcement officers have also been directed not to give tickets to first-time violators.
Instead, they’ll hand out “welcome back” notices with instructions on using the new parking system.
Council is also looking at adding free ferry crossings to help support the plan.
