With a planned $80 Million renovation in progress at the most popular mall in Saskatoon, multiple retail employees have expressed being upset with no expansion of parking on top of still having to pay full price for parking at our workplace. We have made this petition in hopes to reach the right people and receive parking passes or another form of compensation for parking in designated Midtown Plaza parking areas during shifts.

Some employees only get 3 hours shifts at a minimum wage job. With parking being $12, they are missing out on 1/3 of their cheque. Not to mention when the parking amount goes up to $25 during seasonal periods, that’s 2/3 of their shift, if not more. Other employees, such as managers, likely don’t work less than 6 hours a day. That is a guaranteed $25, 5 times a week for them. Totalling out to $125 a WEEK in parking alone, during peak season.

There is a variety of examples of malls that have made this change to be more suitable for their workers. Centre Mall, also in Saskatoon, has free parking to all individuals year round. Cornwall Centre in Regina has free parking after certain hours and discounted parking for employees. These are just some other examples in our province.

There is a variety of options that could satisfy different workers. Parking passes would be ideal as it helps us employees the most. But possibly even reserved discounted spots (ie. the outdoor lot), would satisfy most.

It’s important to mention also, that driving is not optional for all employees. Multiple employees live out of the way of bus routes, or even live outside of the city limits and in small towns surrounding the city. Therefore, driving is their only way to commute.

At the end of the day, hard working employees support the business of this mall and they deserve compensation for exaggerated parking prices. Ideal ways to satisfy this would be to implement parking passes or give mall staff reduced prices, as previously discussed. If we cannot afford to come in to our shifts due to parking, the mall is in turn going to suffer, as we will not have the required staff to support our customers as much as we’d like to!