Parking meters on the east side of First Avenue Northwest from Manitoba Street West to Oxford Street West were once again a topic of discussion at city council.

On Monday night, Moose Jaw City Council voted unanimously to refer the Public Works, Infrastructure and Environment Advisory Committee's recommendation that parking meters be installed on that side of the street at a cost of $36,000 to 2023 budget deliberations.

The reason behind adding meters to First Avenue Northwest is to clarify the single northbound lane with a clear parking lane.

"If you've been up First Avenue, and all of us have, and Coun. Blanc brought this up a while ago there is some confusion around the turning lanes and the centre lane. They've done a good job and re-centered the signs with the lanes and things are getting better, but adding the meters I think would be the last step of that," said Coun. Jamey Logan, who sits on the Public Works, Infrastructure and Environment Advisory Board.

Back in 2019, the configuration of the street was changed from two lanes northbound and two lanes southbound to single lanes with a common centre turning lane.

This isn't the first time this issue has come before city council. During a budget meeting on Dec. 9, 2020, the Public Works and Utilities Department recommended that parking meters be installed on the east side of First Avenue Northwest from Manitoba Street to Oxford Street at a cost of $24,000.

The recommendation was not approved at the time as city council didn't see it as urgent and, while it wasn't a bad idea, the timing was off as the city was tightening the purse strings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I don't think we were wrong to wait to do this now. I think it has been a process but I will look forward to it at budget and feeling at this point like it would be something I will consider supporting when it gets there," said Coun. Heather Eby.

The resubmission of the request increases the cost by 50 per cent to reflect the current market. It would also increase the payback from 3.4 years to five years. The plan includes the installation of 22 parking meters, 12 single parking meters and 10 double parking meters.