Ayah Fahmy recalls parking in a mostly empty lot at the Cobequid Community Health Centre in Lower Sackville and not understanding why she had to pay a fee.
“It was an emergency situation, so I needed to be at the hospital,” she said.
On Thursday, Fahmy took the bus to the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax to avoid the headache of trying to find parking. But she still thinks “it’s ridiculous” that people have to pay for parking at hospitals in Nova Scotia.
During the recent provincial election, all three main political parties pledged to make parking at health-care facilities free. The Progressive Conservatives won the election with a record-setting 43 MLAs elected.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” Premier Tim Houston said when he made his party’s promise in early November.
‘Logistics’ under review
More than six weeks after the election, however, it remains unclear when mechanical arms at hospital parking lots around the province will be permanently raised. But in a statement, a spokesperson reaffirmed the government’s commitment.
“The options and logistics for [removing parking fees] are currently under review,” the spokesperson said.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said those are the kind of details the Tories should have worked out before they made their election promise.
Chender supports removing the fees as a way to address barriers to accessing care. But she said attention needs to be paid to certain sites, such as the IWK Health Centre, Dartmouth General and Victoria General, to ensure free parking does not mean people attending the hospitals wind up competing with the general public to find a space.
Protecting parking for hospital users
She suggested some type of validation system for people attending busier hospitals where parking is already at a premium.
“I’m quite sure that we have the capacity to do that, it’s just a matter of implementing it,” she said. “And, again, you would think this would be something that was contemplated when they made the promise.”
During the election, the Tories estimated the cost of removing parking fees would be about $8 million. Houston said the government would also compensate hospital foundations and any other charitable groups that lose revenue as a result of the policy change.
