SASKATOON - It started out as a small but welcome tribute to the heroes of the battlefield -- veterans weathered by the trials of war and the passage of time would be allowed to park for free at Saskatoon meters as long as the drivers had special poppy-marked licence plates.
It has turned into a predicament that is putting a drain on both revenue and available parking space as the plates become more widely distributed and are used by people who may have never seen a day of combat in their lives.
Now the city is looking for a solution that will still honour those who fought for their country, but prevent people from taking advantage of the taxpayer's homage.
"It's like a lot of things -- you start out and you do good and you want to do good," says Coun. Myles Heidt. "What happened was some people took advantage of a very good thing and now we're going to fix it."
Free parking for veterans in Saskatoon began, as it did in several other Canadian cities, in 2005, which the federal government designated the Year of the Veteran.
Saskatchewan Government Insurance, the province's government-owned auto insurance company, began handing out veteran licence plates with poppies on them, and that was all anyone needed to take advantage of the free parking program.
The city decided to extend the program in 2006 and 2007 to mark the centennials of both Saskatoon and the University of Saskatchewan. But it has become increasingly clear that it's not always veterans who are taking up free parking spots.
As it turns out, the criteria for getting a poppy plate are really quite broad.
While veterans of the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War are eligible, so is anyone with three years paid military experience, including current members -- such as those who work at the Canadian Forces ammunition depot in Dundurn, about 30 kilometres south of Saskatoon. As well, each veteran can get multiple plates for cars registered personally or to a spouse.
City officials and downtown business owners began to notice that some people getting out of their cars and parking for free didn't look much like veterans at all and would leave their cars in the spots all day.
"I believe there is a misconception. I think most people believe that (the plate) is for people who served in one of the world wars or the Korean War," says Miles Jarvin, parking services manager with the city.
"I don't think generally a lot of people are aware that these plates can be obtained by virtually anyone 20 years or older."
A report brought forward at the city's administration and finance committee meeting last week cited a survey last spring that found an average of 100 hours of free parking was being used by cars with veteran plates each day. That translates into $100 a day and $25,000 a year -- $10,000 more than the original estimated cost.
The report recommended discontinuing the program at the end of the year, but that doesn't sit well with veterans.
"It's not the veterans that are the problem," says Gerry Tait, a 76-year-old Korean War veteran who is head of a Royal Canadian Legion branch in the city.
"It's being abused by certain individuals who overstay their spots and, at the same time, everybody but the veterans are using their cars."
Joe Bodie, an 82-year-old Second World War veteran who saw five months of frontline duty when he was only 18, was one of the people who lobbied the committee not to end the program.
"It's a nice privilege and I am enjoying it," Bodie says. "There are very few veterans that are left and I think they deserve a little thank you."
For its part, the government insurance company says it never intended for the veteran plates to be used as part of a free parking program.
"That was something that the city did on their own ... which is in their jurisdiction to do," says spokesman Shaun Humphries. "But it was really designed to commemorate the veterans and not really be associated with parking."
There are currently 3,657 active veteran plates on vehicles in the province and 731 in Saskatoon, Humphries says.
Councillors have asked city officials to find a solution short of cancelling the program, such as a sticker or rear-view mirror tag that could be given out to the veterans the program is intended to honour.
That might not be easy to define. Heidt says he's already received one call from a soldier who returned injured from Afghanistan and was lobbying for the program to continue.
"I don't care what war it is. Anybody that sacrifices themselves to go out and fight for what we believe in ... has to be recognized," Heidt says.
"We will do that."
