In 1998, the moguls of Canada’s parking industry paid a serious chunk of change to a consultant, who alerted them to something you or I could have told them for, oh . . . say, a year’s supply of Smart Pay Cards.

He told the parking moguls they have an image problem.

But first, to clarify:

Yes, there is a Canadian parking industry, part of a trillion-dollar global parking industry, and it’s right in step with most of the new-age business trends.

Mike Sturk, Business Edge
Dale Fraser, GM of the Calgary Parking Authority and president of the Canadian Parking Association, may have been born to park.

It’s got focus groups, a professional association, and a mission statement.

It has a Web site, and a magazine (prosaically dubbed The Parker), which runs think pieces about the plausibility of flogging parking permits on eBay. The industry is served by corporations such as TCS International and T2 Systems Inc., which develop parking management software and provide parking consulting services.

The Canadian parking industry will also send delegates to World Parking Symposium III, slated for St. Andrews, Scotland, next June.

This year’s theme is Parking and Transportation for a Green World, guaranteed to inspire position papers on topics such as parking and lifestyle.

There’ll be round-table skull sessions, and maybe a quick 18 on the Old Course before sundown.

Clearly, there’s more to new-millennium parking than just ramming coins in the meter and tearing up those obnoxious Impark tickets.

In fact, there’s a temptation to poke fun at the Canadian parking industry, for taking itself so darned seriously.

Or there would be, if its front man wasn’t a homeboy and a pretty good business administrator who helped guide the Calgary Parking Authority (CPA) to a $15-million profit in 2000. Most of that — $12 million — went back to the city’s transportation and infrastructure fund.

His name is Dale Fraser, an earnest, spit’n’polish go-getter of 38 who doubles as general manager of the CPA.

Fraser, who takes the applied science of parking very seriously indeed, was thrust into the public eye when commuters panicked after 2,000 city transit workers hit the bricks two weeks ago.

Prepared, Fraser deftly fielded media inquiries, and freed up more than 1,000 city-owned spaces to ease the pressure.

Some execs are born to lead. But Fraser may have been born to park.

While chasing his B.Comm. at University of Calgary, he worked part-time for the Exhibition and Stampede parking division. Later, he fell into the job of head parking co-ordinator at Foothills Hospital, before assuming responsibility for parking at all CRHA facilities.

What better choice for president of the Canadian Parking Association, a professional network of 350 municipal, airport and hospital parking operators, both public and private?

So much for background.

Now, about that image problem.

Fraser says no figures exist to indicate how many dollars pour into the pockets of Canadian parking operators — parkades, surface lots, meters and infraction tickets. But we’re talking many millions a year.

With so much cash at stake, the parking moguls decided their customer-service model needed an overhaul.

They hired their consultant, took surveys and assembled male and female focus groups.

The findings:

“Too often (parking operators) are portrayed as having facilities not properly designed and maintained, parkades that create possible hazards and potential liability, to people and vehicles,” said Fraser.

“That’s an image we see in TV and movies — somebody in a dark parkade, a threatening atmosphere . . . ,” he continued.

The antidote is the PERC program (Parking Excellence Recognized in Canada), coming to a parkade near you in a few months.

It’s a plan to identify “parking excellence,” and recognize it by assigning a Good Housekeeping seal to those lots which pass muster.

To earn their PERC approval seal, parkade operators must have proper signage in place and adequate lighting.

“Are we causing spillover light pollution into adjacent developments? We want to be sensitive to our impact on our neighbours,” Fraser explained.

High standards of safety, security, staffing and cleanliness — including rapid removal of graffiti and trash — also must be met before operators will be allowed to post the PERC logo.

“We want to help our customers recognize ‘best practices’ in parking, and hopefully choose a facility that has been accredited,” Fraser said.

Wow.

All this new-age jargon and sensitivity may sound a little silly. But it represents a startling change of pace for the industry once lambasted by Joni Mitchell for paving over paradise.

So give the parking moguls credit. All they’re trying to do is put a tiny piece of paradise back where they found it.