Annapolis County council wants province to remove parking fees at Nova Scotia hospitals
Nova Scotians shouldn’t have to pay to park at hospitals across the province, says Alex Morrison.
The warden of the Municipality of the County of Annapolis recently wrote a letter to Health Minister Michelle Thompson asking the province to stop the practice, which isn’t uniform across the province.
“As long as the fee has been in effect, it’s been a bone of concern,” he said in an interview.
The letter states it is free to park at 18 of Nova Scotia’s 41 hospitals (44 per cent). People attending hospitals in the Annapolis Valley as well as the South and Southwest shores pay $3 or $4, the letter states, except in Berwick, where parking is free.
“This despite, western Nova Scotia having some of the lowest average incomes per household and highest poverty rates,” Morrison wrote. “Clearly, charging residents in the western part of Nova Scotia the highest fees for parking while nearly 50 per cent of all others receive free parking is unfair.”
A staff report, penned by chief administrative officer Chris McNeill, said many district health authorities instituted paid parking to increase revenue.
“In the beginning the money was used where it was collected,” Morrison said, “but now all of the money from the hospital parking lots in the province go into the provincial general coffers for whatever purposes they decide.”
More than $10 million in revenue is being generated by those parking lots, the municipality has learned.
Jennifer Lewandowski, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health (NSH), said 100 per cent of parking revenue is invested into health care and used to fund new equipment purchases or to support operations at the site.
“In most cases, at NSH sites where parking is free, the parking lot is shared with another organization that does not charge for parking, or the parking lot is not well configured to segregate paid parking from other parking options,” she wrote in an email to the Annapolis Valley Register.
“Parking rates at NSH facilities have held steady at the same rate and not increased for many years, except for some change in Halifax due to market conditions. Nova Scotia Health offers a discount to the normal parking rate for patients and families who make frequent visits, such as a monthly rate.”
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Coun. Dustin Enslow said he was glad the municipality was looking at the issue.
“It’s pretty bad when you go to a hospital and you get happy when you get to the gate and it’s broken and the gate is up,” he said.
Enslow said he wonders the impacts on people who can’t afford the parking fees.
“(Are) there people not going to the hospital, or (not) going to see someone, because of that,” he said.
Morrison said some people are parking on the street near hospitals to avoid paying the fees.
The county’s letter was also sent to MLAs Carman Kerr and Jill Balser, the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and the Association of Municipal Administrators Nova Scotia.
“Parking fees at public hospitals are unfair and should not be used as a barrier for low-income people to access vital and needed health-care services,” Morrison wrote.
“We encourage you and your government to seriously consider removing all parking fees from publicly funded hospitals immediately to show your true compassion for hundreds of thousands of low-income Nova Scotians who shouldn’t have to decide if they can seek medical treatment or required blood work today for fear of not being able to pay for parking.”
Need to know
The Municipality of the County of Annapolis did a review of parking fees at Nova Scotia’s 41 hospitals. Here are some of what it found.
Facility Parking fee
Annapolis and Kings counties
- Annapolis Community Health Centre, Annapolis Royal $3
- Eastern Kings Memorial Community Health Centre, Wolfville $3
- Soldiers Memorial Hospital, Middleton $3
- Valley Regional Hospital, Kentville $3
- Western Kings Memorial Health Centre, Berwick Free
- Halifax Regional Municipality and Hants County
- Hants Community Hospital, Windsor Free
- Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, Halifax $3*
- IWK Health Centre, Halifax $3*
Digby, Shelburne and Yarmouth counties
- Digby General Hospital, Digby $4
- Roseway Hospital, Shelburne $4
- Yarmouth Regional Hospital $4
* Denotes hourly fee
