DND's parking problem isn't new — and they have no good solutions | Opinion

DND says it is looking at "options" to fix the parking issues. Photo by TONY CALDWELL /POSTMEDIA

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Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised the Department of National Defence an $84 billion spending boost over five years, presumably on the premise that DND can manage the money wisely and effectively.

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The fact that the defense department can’t even resolve a parking problem at its own Carling Avenue campus casts that theory in considerable doubt.

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DND has been struggling with a parking shortage at the former Nortel campus since 2019. Here we are in 2026, and the problem remains unresolved. There has been talk of a parking garage, now apparently abandoned. A plan to provide parking and shuttle buses from the Connaught Ranges and Primary Training Centre, a 10-minute drive away, was rejected in 2019 because it would take too long to implement and be too complicated.

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Absent any plan to expand parking capacity, DND brass have resorted to an unattractive combination of wheedling and punishment. Trying the good cop approach, senior staff have asked if people could please, please, choose to come to the office on Mondays or Fridays, when the parking lot is less crowded.

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Reverting to bad cop, the military police have towed away vehicles that were parked on the grass fringes of the parking lot. It costs about $400 to get a towed vehicle out of impound. The $75-a-month parking pass employees can buy doesn’t guarantee them a spot.

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In short, DND has been flailing away at this problem for years and has accomplished nothing. In fact, it’s going backwards. The parking problem will only get worse when government employees return to office four days a week later this year.

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It wasn’t like the parking issue was something unanticipated. The buildings of the Carling campus can handle 10,000 employees, but there are only 5,000 parking spots. The location at the corner of Carling and Moodie Drive isn’t exactly remote, but it’s certainly not central and it’s not easy to serve by transit.

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Many military people live in Orleans. Were you to board a bus at the Place d’Orleans park and ride at 7 a.m., OC Transpo could deliver you to the Carling campus in just under two hours. All you have to do is take one bus, transfer to a train, then take another bus, followed by a short walk. Driving the same distance at the same time of day typically takes about 30 minutes.

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A DND employee fortunate enough to be close to the Tunney’s Pasture Station could grab the Number 57 bus at 7:47 a.m. and be whisked to work in only one hour and 10 minutes. It’s a 20-minute drive in normal traffic.

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But what about that western expansion of the LRT? It comes to a screeching halt at Moodie Drive, a scant two kilometres from the DND building down the road.

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The city says it’s premature to discuss what bus service might be like from Moodie station. If all goes well, and it seldom does, the western train service should begin sometime late next year. Doesn’t seem that early to think about an obvious opportunity to serve a major employer.

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Maybe, after a few years of study, the military could organize its own shuttle bus service from the train station.