Parking Fee Update

Parking Fees during COVID-19 Pandemic Campus Shutdown

Good Afternoon ASPA Members,

As you may be aware from our recent AGM, ASPA, along with the other unions on campus (CUPE 1975, CUPE 3287, PSAC and USFA), have been in contact with University administration to request that the parking fees for university employees be temporarily stopped as of May 1, 2020. The reasoning being that since we are not allowed to be on campus, we cannot make use of the parking we are paying for. The letter that was sent to administration on May 11, 2020 is attached for your information.

On Wednesday May 20, 2020 we received the reply from Wade Epp, Associate Vice President Services advising us that fees will continue to be deducted as per normal. The attached letter outlines their reasons for their denial of our request.

Based on the reply from the university, each member will need to make their own decision on whether they want to cancel their parking or not during the campus shutdown. At this time, we do not have a date as to when we may be able to return to campus other than the fall term of classes will be online with some exceptions around clinical learning so it may be many months yet before we all come back. We are also disappointed in the university’s decision not to suspend the parking fees, given we are not allowed on campus and should people decide to cancel that they wouldn’t be guaranteed returning to the location they left upon their return. Instead, you may be relegated to the bottom of the list and potentially reassigned to a lot farther away from your work site after dedicating many years of service to the university and/or waited years on a waiting list to get the desired location. Those members on temporary lay-off can cancel their parking while on layoff and are able to get back to the same lot they had before when they return.

All the best

Curtis Larson ASPA President