City parking fees are going up next year for some drivers, as the City of Regina is removing discounts for metered parking permits for certain groups.

The parking permits allow drivers to park at city meters without an additional charge. The city offered these permits at a discount to certain groups but that’s going to change come January 2019.

The groups that used to qualify for the discounts were media, government, Crown corporations, RCMP, MLA's and other elected officials. Now all these groups will have to pay the same price as the public for a parking permit that will allow them to park at a meter.

“Not all discounts were removed; for example non-profit, non-governmental Health and Social Service Organizations will still pay a lower price,” said a City of Regina spokesperson in a statement. “These changes will result in an estimated $100,000 of increased revenue which represents less than five per cent of parking revenue collected by the City. These changes have the added benefit of reducing parking demand which will increase available parking in the downtown area.”

This news came after the city passed the 2019 budget at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The city also said the amounts differ based on the discount and type of permit received. Full price is $1,040 per city permit and $5200 for a privileged permit that allows the holder to park in at a metered space for up to 24 hours.

The RCMP says the price increase won’t change much because they weren't buying many permits.

The province says it's not largely impacted by the change.

“The Government of Saskatchewan only uses City of Regina parking permits for vehicles where an operational service need exists such as a maintenance vehicle or a mail truck,” a government spokesperson said in a statement. “Any change in cost would have a minimal impact as there are a limited number of these types of vehicles. Government MLAs have not been notified of any change to city parking permits. SaskEnergy, SaskTel and SaskPower service vehicles are exempt from metered parking, so they are not required to buy parking permits for those vehicles.”