The City of Moose Jaw has voted to move forward with a Request for Proposal for a new mobile parking app.

City Manager Jim Puffalt explains how it would work.

"You're able to go to any location that has an existing meter. It has a 'location' on it, you enter that into your system, push the 'location' of your meter into the app, and you're able to charge time on to the meter."

"If you have no coins with you, you're able to use the app to pay for parking. If you're at a restaurant or a meeting and it takes an extra hour, you're able to add more time to your meter. The beauty of these systems is that there is going to be no cost to the city on this. We have the meters out there already; we are not planning on taking them down."

While the designer of the app has not been selected yet, there are some apps out there that do charge an extra fee when using the app to pay for parking, but the extra charge is usually as low as 20% of the meter cost. That extra cost would go to the company.

The plan would also be to add a 'cap' or limit on to the amount of time someone can park at a meter in order to prevent someone from parking at a single meter for an excessive period of time.

And something that many residents would welcome with open arms, the app could also provide a refund if you don't use all of the time you paid for at a meter. You can also carry over extra time you paid for but didn't use, and use it at another meter.

"It's a tremendous opportunity to save some funds, to save some staffing costs," says Puffalt, "Perhaps even increase revenue with minimal or no cost to the city."