Ontario freezes hospital parking rates for 3 years

Parking fees at hospitals in Ontario will be frozen for the next three years, effective immediately, the provincial government announced Monday.

After the three-year period, any parking rate increases cannot exceed the rate of inflation, said Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins.

As of Oct. 1, 2016, hospitals that charge more than $10 a day for parking will be required to provide five-, 10- and 30-day passes that are: discounted by 50 per cent off their daily rate; transferable between patients and caregivers; equipped with in-and-out privileges throughout a 24-hour period; and good for one year from the date of purchase.

That change will not impact Health Sciences North, however, which charges $6 for daily parking (or per exit).

Health Sciences North also offers a monthly parking pass for $80; a weekly parking pass for $30; and a package of 10 parking tokens for $50.

The hospital also offers pay and display parking, closer to the entrance, which costs one dollar an hour, and a maximum of $12 for a day.

The hospital's metered parking also costs a dollar per hour.

"Parking fees should never be a barrier for patients when they go to the hospital,” Hoskins said in a press release. “With today’s announcement, we are providing relief from the high cost of parking at some hospitals in Ontario. By making parking more affordable for patients and their loved ones who visit the hospital often, we are helping to reduce the burden of parking fees and putting patients first.”

Parking fees reportedly generate $100 million in revenues each year for Ontario's hospitals.

Health Sciences North spokesperson Dan Lessard said he expects the parking freeze to have a minimal impact on the hospital's finances.

He said the recent expansion to the hospital's parking lot – adding an extra 965 parking spaces in 2015 – should offset the three-year price freeze.

“People who normally would have parked off site are parking here,” Lessard said.

Lessard said the hospital's parking rates have not increased much over the last three years.

“We always want to make sure our rates are very reasonable,” he said.

The province's hospital parking efforts don't go far enough for the NDP. The party's health critic, and Nickel Belt MPP, France Gélinas said the promised more than a year ago to cut hospital parking fees, and is now forcing people to wait even longer.

“It’s been over 600 days since Kathleen Wynne promised to cut hospital parking fees, and now patients and their loved ones will wait another 256 days before they see relief from these high costs," Gélinas said in a statement. "Clearly, improving access to health care just isn’t a priority for this Liberal government."