Prince Edward County (PEC) approved of tourism management measures for this year’s incoming high season—including a $306,000 budget, revised parking stipulations at the county’s beaches, and installations of multiple publicly accessible fast electric vehicle chargers—at Thursday's council meeting.

On the issue of road parking around the beaches of Sandbanks Provincial Park and North Beach Provincial Park, staff recommended to maintain no-parking zones on the roads in the surrounding vicinity, with a $400 fine (which offers a $300 voluntary payment) making a return from last season.

The beaches have the highest emergency vehicle access needs, according to the county. On no-parking zones around other PEC water access points, staff recommended reducing the fines to $100 (with a $75 voluntary payment).

Staff also recommended discontinuing the PEC (resident) Summer Pass Program, as it pertains to parking. However, this was not adopted by Committee as they voted to keep it, and to make the passes annually re-usable.

Regarding ElV chargers, Committee agreed to a staff recommended plan to solicit for a public-private partnership (P3) in the form of a no-capital-cost land lease arrangement to install two publicly accessible fast (level 3) electric vehicle chargers. Picton Coun. Phil St-Jean relayed a story about the importance of these chargers to county tourism:

Listen to the full story below: