Upgrades to the pay stations began in June and will continue through the spring of 2026. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

City of Saskatoon upgrades public pay parking stations

By CKOM News Aug 26, 2025 | 3:23 PM

Changes are coming to how people park in the City of Saskatoon with its plan to modernize public pay parking stations.

Upgrades began in June 2025 and will continue through spring 2026. Stations will remain operational during the transition, though brief interruptions may occur, said the city in a release.

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To make parking more convenient, the new pay stations will accept multiple payment methods, including debit and credit card tap, Apple and Google Pay and digital wallets.

“If you do not have tap functionality, you can still pay using coins, the ParkedIn parking app, a city parking card or by scanning the QR code located on the pay station,” said the city in a statement.

The modernized system will also mean fewer breakdowns, faster transactions and reduced wait times.

Larger, full-colour screens will make it easier for people to use the stations, and real-time data will help the city monitor usage and availability to “make better decisions about parking policy and enforcement,” stated the release.

For more information, visit the City of Saskatoon’s website.

City searching for ways to collect outstanding parking fines

Last August, CKOM reported the city was looking at several ways to try and collect more than $6 million in outstanding parking ticket fines.

Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer requested the information during the Aug. 6 Transportation Committee meeting.

Matt Grazier, Community Standards Director, told councillors it was an improvement from 2022.

“In analyzing data…outstanding parking ticket value for the time period was reduced from $6.8 million to $6.1 million, a reduction of approximately $700,000,” said Grazier.

Over the last two years, Grazier explained, a second “boot crew” — or parking enforcement unit — has been used to locate vehicles tied to outstanding tickets. More emphasis has been placed on “early pay” options, and ticket reminders are also issued for “scofflaws” — those with two or more outstanding parking tickets.

According to a city report, as of April 24, 2024, there were more than 12,000 vehicles with “scofflaw” status.

“Pay stations do not alert our boot crews, so somebody could currently enter their plate number into the pay station, and it wouldn’t get flagged,” said Grazier.

He added that a request has also been made to SGI for more detailed access to current driver information. In the future, unpaid parking tickets could be tied to the ability of a driver to renew either their license or registration, similar to provinces like Alberta.

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— With files from CKOM’s Lara Fominoff