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Red Deer resident signs petition to eliminate parking fees at hospitals

Wildrose Party supports the petition

A petition to the House of Commons to eliminate parking fees at hospitals across the country has made its way to Red Deer.

Winnipeg cancer patient Collin Bryce Kennedy began the electronic petition in July and has gathered more than 3,000 signatures from across Canada.

One of those signatures includes Red Deer cancer patient Nicole Shave.

Shave has spent countless hours at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre during diagnosis along with multiple trips to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary for chemo treatments, stem cell transplants and radiation.

In the past five months, her family has spent about $1,500 in parking fees.

“I haven’t been able to work throughout my treatments and the $20 a week literally broke me some months. For a lot of cancer patients it is honestly a toss up about whether you’re paying for parking or buying groceries,” said Shave.

The Wildrose Party started a similar petition in August suggesting hospital parking fees be waived for the first two hours. Their petition has received more than 3,000 signatures.

“Visiting a loved one in hospital, or having treatment or surgery should not be made tougher or discouraged by having to shell out for what can be very expensive hospital parking fees,” Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said. “This hidden tax is hitting Albertans at a time of enormous emotional stress, and financial stress shouldn’t be an added anxiety.”

Steve Rees, senior program officer of capital management at Alberta Health Services, said he understands the concerns, but eliminating the fees is just not possible.

“I certainly have empathy towards the people who are signing it and understand the issues,” he said. “AHS really understands that coming to a facility either for personal care or to support a loved one can be an extremely stressful time and parking can just add to it. AHS doesn’t receive funding from the government to support the parking. All of our parking facilities have to be self sustaining.”

Financial information from Alberta Health Services shows that hospital visitors pay approximately $75 million in parking fees per year with more than $17 million in profit.

“That goes into the new facilities. We finished the parking lot in Red Deer lot not too long ago and that was one of the new sites where we have done a major upgrade or a replacement. The money is being spent in planning and other projects,” said Rees.

Rees said although parking fees are sometimes a financial burden, he feels the rates are reasonable.

“We try to do market rates. We do surveys in each city, each zone and each area in each city to make sure it’s competitive. If they weren’t competitive, you may have people that aren’t using our facility, but are using our parking. So we try to be as close to market rates as possible,” said Rees.

The hospital currently charges $1.25 per half hour and daily rates of $8.50 for surface parking lots and the parkade and $9.50 for underground. A weekly parking pass costs $37, while a month parking pass is $57.