Parking at Vancouver International Airport.There’s a sign that tells you the first 30 minutes is free but there’s a catch

By William Corden

If you go over the 30 minutes you have to pay for that free half hour, so an hour’s parking sets you back $29.50. Talk about a rip off and talk about why people are leaving Vancouver like it was the dust bowl.

The ticket indicates a “parking sales tax of 29% or $6.21 and then they add even more tax by way of GST (our goods and services tax) to the tune of $1.40.

Government departments keep getting away with outrageous fees like this ‘cos they know there’s no one to stop them

The minimum wage in Vancouver is $18.25 per hour, so fees for parking a car are now almost 50% per hour more lucrative than working.

Of course the Airport is a Federal Bailiwick  and all of the money we pay to them in parking and airport improvement fees goes straight back to Ottawa.  We in the Great Lost Northwest see not one dime of it ploughed back into our local economy. Much of the parking revenue, I’m sure, goes to the maintenance of the AI enhance parking recognition system. It would give Enigma a run for its money.

They give you a coupon when you drive in and then the same coupon is read when you leave…. if you lose the coupon they whack you with a $50 fine.

The system is completely broken when the bureaucracy can do whatever it wants with no repercussions.