Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin will ask city council today to abandon any idea of charging for evening and Sunday parking downtown.

"I'm going to bring back the parking motion for reconsideration," Fortin said.

Two weeks ago, while Fortin was leading a trade mission to China, councillors voted to ask municipal staff to look at charging for those traditionally free times and report on the potential impact.

Fortin called the idea of charging for parking on Sundays and evenings premature and "not something we're interested in doing." "Rather than have staff go do work that no one is interested in, let's just end all speculation," Fortin said yesterday, adding the council discussion of extending pay-parking times caught him off guard.

Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter welcomed news that the motion would be reconsidered. "I would have preferred that it didn't come up in the first place," he said, adding if councillors had called any downtown business, they would have heard it was a bad idea.

Fortin noted Sunday pay parking was rejected in a parking strategy adopted in 2008 that involved in-depth community consultation. "We certainly want to encourage people to get out of their cars, but you encourage that through cycling, pedestrian and public-transit plans." In Vancouver, on-street parking is metered from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, including statutory holidays.

The evening and Sunday parking issue came up as council dealt with a small parking-fee increase, necessitated by the looming HST.

Set to go into effect this summer, the new 12 per cent tax combines the federal goods and services tax with the provincial sales tax.

Because of the tax, city parkade rates will rise by 25 cents for each $2 increment. The maximum daily rate will go to $13.50 from $12.

On-street-meter fees will also increase. Thirty minutes will cost $1.25, up from $1. A one-hour spot will be $2.50 instead of $2.

Parking is a big revenue generator for the city.

City staff are projecting $5 million in revenue from meters alone in 2010.

bcleverley@tc.canwest.com