Ontario freezes hospital parking rates for 3 years

However the announcement will have little to no effect on the parking prices at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, said its CEO, Elizabeth Buller.

Parking costs at Hotel Dieu Hospital will not be affected by this announcement either as the hospital does not own any lots.

“This will obviously reduce that net profit, but it varies pretty significantly from hospital to hospital, and at the end of the day it is a tiny, tiny portion of any individual hospital’s budget”, he said.

The government of Ontario also announced that hospitals who charge over $10 a day for parking will be required to offer discounted passes for 5, 10 or 30-day use at a discount of 50 percent the daily rate.

In Orillia, parking revenues generate about $1 million annually for the local hospital.

Dale said Ontario hospitals need transitional funding to offset the expected decline in parking revenues.

Hoskins also announced Monday that hospitals are being urged to freeze parking rates for the next three years, part of what he called an effort to “make hospital parking more affordable for thousands of patients, their loved ones and caregivers”. He adds those hospitals will have to offer 5, 10, and 30 day discounted parking passes beginning this October.

Soldiers’ implemented a time-based fee structure for parking in 2013 and capped its daily rate, meaning the hospital is unlikely to be affected by the new regulation.

Last year, Ontario hospitals collected $172 million in hospital fees.

“These passes will be transferrable between patients”, Ontario’s Health Minister Eric Hoskins said today at a news conference in Toronto, “transferrable to their caregivers and to other family members as well and would allow in and out privileges over a 24-hour period, good for one year from the date of purchase”. “We’re actually supportive of the announcement”, Buller said.

Spokesperson Judy Brown said the money raised through parking “goes directly to patient care”.

The hourly parking rates at hospitals in Ottawa are between $3.50 to $4.00 for half an hour.

Hoskins says patients get better faster when surrounded by their loved ones, and he doesn’t think parking fees should be a barrier for families who have to make frequent visits to a hospital. “We receive a fixed amount of funding from the government … and generally don’t receive funding from the ministry for equipment – from an infrastructure standpoint, but also patient care equipment”. 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.

“I would appreciate more a reduction in the hourly rate”, says one woman heading into the Ottawa Hospital parking lot”.