PINAWA -- The Town of Pinawa is implementing a new $20 parking fee on weekends and holidays at a popular destination amid a tourism spike this year.
With travel options limited, the community is seeing an influx of Manitoba visitors during COVID-19, especially for a popular tube float down the Pinawa Channel.
The fee is aimed at recovering costs, but it’s not sitting well with everyone.
“While we’re trying to alleviate a traffic problem, charging a fee, the idea is less people will park in this area,” said Float and Paddle tour operator Timo Stefanishyn. “I think what’s going to happen instead is you’re going to find people parking in areas you’re not supposed to park in.”
Pinawa Mayor Blair Skinner said the channel float — along with hiking, the suspension bridge, and old Pinawa dam site — has led to a spike in visitors to the community of 1,500 people.
Skinner sees increased tourism as a good thing for area businesses, but it comes with challenges and in this case, it’s finding ways to pay for maintaining washrooms, trash collection and providing parking.
“With many Manitobans having to find vacation spots within Manitoba I think the crowds this year have grown beyond what anyone could’ve forecast,” he said.
Skinner estimates there were around 1,000 people per day at the site during a busy weekend earlier this month, which led to overflowing parking lots, safety concerns and worries over emergency access due to congestion from people parking along gravel roads and the highway leading into town.
Last Tuesday, the mayor and councillors decided the community will begin charging $20 per car on weekends and holidays for people to park near the Pinawa suspension bridge starting Jul. 24. It’s the take-out point for the popular channel float but there are only spaces for 60 vehicles.
“There’s going to be more than 60 cars that are going to want to park and they’re going to have to park somewhere,” said Skinner.
He said the plan is to direct overflow parking along a gravel road on the south side of provincial road 211.
Skinner said people directed there won’t have to pay but they will have to walk farther to access their vehicles. He said the town plans to hire three parking attendants to control traffic.
Even though it won’t directly impact Stefanishyn’s tour company — his clients park at the launch point and get shuttled by bus from the take-out back to their cars, meaning they won’t have to pay extra — he thinks the issues at the suspension bridge will only move elsewhere.
“I’m 100 per cent behind the charging for parking, but the way it’s being implemented I don’t think is the best way forward,” said Stefanishyn.
Pinawa Unplugged tour operator Susan Appleyard’s customers could be directly affected.
Appleyard’s clients usually leave their cars at the take-out point and then only the driver of the vehicle gets shuttled to the launch point where the rest of the group waits. Now, Appleyard is scrambling to find a workaround, which may mean buying a shuttle bus or giving customers the option of parking at the launch.
“Now with the change, it’s kind of an administrative nightmare for me because I’m going to have to contact every single person that has booked with me and let them know of this change,” said Appleyard.
Skinner said the community is working with tour operators to find solutions.
He added the community can’t charge people to go on the channel because waterways aren’t under municipal jurisdiction and parking at the launch point is along a provincial highway.
Tuber Trish Klotz, who used Appleyard’s tour company for a float down the channel Monday for her niece’s birthday, said she understands the need for a fee and it won’t stop her from visiting the area.
“It’s a low fee to tube, it’s $20 so to have to pay an extra $20 to park is fine if it goes towards maintenance of the roads or maintenance of the bathrooms,” said Klotz.
People who live in Pinawa don’t have to pay and Mayor Skinner said the community will monitor the new parking system and that it’s open to making changes, if necessary.
In addition to making parking changes, Skinner said the community is trying to work with Manitoba Infrastructure to lower the speed limit near the turnoff to the suspension bridge.
The community is also looking to take over the authority of a section of provincial road 211, which would allow it to start charging for parking at the launch point.
Manitoba Infrastructure is considering the community’s requests but so far no decisions have been made.
