Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Downtown Kamloops
August 18, 2025 - 6:00 PM
Parking a car at a meter is about to get more expensive for Kamloops drivers.
Parking in the Tournament Capital is relatively inexpensive compared to some BC cities, but changes are on the horizon. A report to city council suggests bumping up the hourly rate, but the biggest hike would go to parking tickets.
If approved, the hourly rate would go from $1.25 up to $2 on Victoria Street and all other metered parking would be $1.50. That's similar to Kelowna's on-street rate outside the peak summer season.
Some downtown neighbourhoods also have parking permits for residents in an effort to stave off spillover parking. That program may even be expanded to the North Shore, along with parking meters on Tranquille Road.
The changes come two years after a city parking study, which found there is plenty of parking to spare downtown, especially in under-used parkades and outside Victoria Street. Tranquille Road, however, was getting more squeezed as the area gets redeveloped.
Meanwhile, parking enforcement dropped in 2020 when the bylaw department restructured and the focus on parking fell for a few years. Bylaw officers wrote fewer than 1,400 tickets in the first half of 2022, compared to 3,620 in the same time last year, though that's still under pre-2020 numbers.
The bylaw department has since recruited more officers and, if council approves the changes, ticket revenue will soon jump with fines proposed to double.
The standard fine for expired meter parking is $40, but it's reduced to half if paid within 30 days and it's just $10 if paid within 24 hours.
The city has proposed increasing the parking fine to $80 and that ticket would still come with a 24-hour grace period, but at a cost $50. That would increase to to $65 two weeks after the first day. The city doesn't currently punish anyone for late payments, but the proposed changes would add a $50 fee if the parking ticket is paid after 30 days.
Other changes include extending on-street paid parking times from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., new fees at city-owned boat launches and adding more accessible parking spaces to the downtown core.
The staff report goes to a council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 19.
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