Campus parking passes cost $10 more this semester. The increase is in part to cover the massive costs associated with last winter’s snowfall.
Cameron Roy, director of ancillary services, said the justification for the increase was based on the rising costs the weather presented for parking lot maintenance, as well as the rising cost of doing business in general.
Ancillary services is the department that oversees the campus bookstore, food services, housing, and parking.
“There’s all kinds of expenses, it was off the charts this year,” said Roy.
Had ancillary services not been able to attain some emergency funding from the university, there would have been a large loss this last year, Roy said.
The budget for snow removal is near $100,000. This past year cost over $600,000.
“We’re not basing our budgets on this past year’s budget, we couldn’t sustain that pricing,” said Roy. “If we expected the same winter patterns over the next ten years, we’d have to get serious about significantly raising the price.”
Many of the ongoing parking lot expenses include repaving, recurbing, and line painting.
“It’s still of value for students to buy a parking pass, that way they’re still saving money,” Roy said.
The parking lot management company, Impark, does not receive a percentage of the profits that UFV collects through pay parking. Impark is paid a flat management fee, and UFV takes whatever profits are made. These profits are sent back to the university, where the finance department decides how it should be used.
As budget subsidies from the government are reduced, a greater dependency is put on ancillary services to supplement costs. The bookstore’s, services’, and parking revenue above ancillary fees all go to the university to support the institution in its costs.
Another price increase for parking passes is unlikely in the near future, Roy said.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to say that in the next five years, certainly for the passes, I couldn’t see anything dramatically changing.”
