Hospital parking fees will be suspended for patients, staff and visitors at all health authority-owned and operated sites in the province effective April 1, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said Monday.
The controversial fees were suspended in an effort to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, he said.
“This change makes it easier for individuals to avoid touching screens and buttons at payment kiosks that may have been touched by someone previously,” said Dix. “And it also supports physical distancing measures that have been mandated by our provincial health officer.”
The change is effective until further notice.
The Provincial Health Services Authority is also temporarily suspending payroll deductions for parking fees. B.C. Transit ProPASS payroll deductions for staff and medical staff are also being temporarily suspended in communities where B.C. Transit is waiving transit fares, said Island Health.
Hospital parking fees bring in about $40 million in gross revenue each year across the province, up from $15 million in 2003, Dix has said. The province has been studying whether to scrap the fees.
During the B.C. NDP convention last year, delegates called on the province to eliminate hospital parking fees for patients and families, saying they create “a hardship during some of the most stressful moments in a family’s life.” A resolution passed by delegates said the fees “give private companies the chance to profit from parking violations incurred by sick or grieving people using a publicly run service.”
Not all hospitals on Vancouver Island have pay parking. People visiting patients at Victoria General, Royal Jubilee and Saanich Peninsula hospitals pay parking fees, while at the Campbell River and Comox Valley North Island hospitals, parking is free.
At Royal Jubilee, parking fees vary from $1 for the first 30 minutes and $1.50 each hour after that at the main emergency entrance to parkade fees of $2.25 for the first hour and $1.25 for each additional hour, to a maximum daily rate of $16.
Island Health collected $7.9 million from parking fees in 2018. In 2015-2016, it cost about $3 million to maintain the lots — including $1 million paid to Robbins Parking, the contractor hired to police them.
Much of the revenue from parking fees goes to hospital foundations and to support health-care services. In cases where there is a need or people are in hospital for a long time, health authorities frequently waive parking fees, the minister has said.
Almost all of the parking management in B.C. hospitals is contracted out.
HospitalPayParking.ca, an online site aimed at ending “the obligatory pay parking trap and [advocating a] transition to something better that works for everyone,” posted in January the results of a freedom of information request for parking-violation statistics for 2018-2019 at Island Health facilities.
Results showed that 67 per cent of the 13,105 parking tickets issued at Vancouver Island hospitals went to hospital staff, including doctors and nurses. Of those 13,105 tickets, only 4,660 were paid.
The data showed not a single public vehicle was towed in that year at any Island hospital for failing to pay parking fines, but 13 staff vehicles were towed. Each ticket nets a $25 fine.
