HRM Parking infraction.(File photo)

Parking downtown, might get a little more inconvenient.

HRM wants to start charging for street parking on weeknights after 6pm, and Saturdays, for the first time ever.

It would be an extra $800,000 of revenue for the municipality, but businesses owners are really concerned about how it will affect their customers.

A letter penned by Tim Rissesco, Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, Paul MacKinnon, Downtown Halifax Business Commission and Sue Uteck, Spring Garden Area Business Association is circulating online detailing the negative impacts this might cause.

“In our member surveys and conversations, parking is almost always cited as the top concern among businesses and customers. The perception of lack of availability, and concerns about the costs always put us at a competitive disadvantage vis a vis our prime competition, malls and big box parks. This will impact not only downtown’s regular customer base, but perhaps even moreso the occasional visitor, coming for a Mooseheads game, Neptune performance, or the Alderney Farmer’s Market. Implementing these changes, for the first time, may bring in a modest return for the municipality’s general revenues, but it would come at a real cost to our businesses, and add to the customer perception that downtown is not convenient. ”

The Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) of Downtown Dartmouth, Downtown Halifax, and Spring Garden Area ask anyone who may be negatively impacted by the extra parking charge, to contact the mayor and local councillors, before March 29.

You can find a full list of HRM councilors at https://www.halifax.ca/city-hall/districts-councillors or contact clerks@halifax.ca, which will automatically send the correspondence to all of Council.