Interior Health is losing millions because of free parking rules

When COVID-19 hit B.C. hard in March, health minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry fought back with new rules on things like safe distancing, hand washing and rules to keep businesses operating.

They also decreed that, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus, parking in B.C. hospital parking lots would be free as of April 1 so people weren’t put at risk by having to press touch pads to pay.

READ MORE: Parking will be free at all B.C. hospitals starting Wednesday

But that has come with a cost of roughly $500,000 a month for the past five months at Interior Health’s 10 paid parking sites. So far, that’s totalled $2.5 million.

“When they are collected, parking revenues directly offset operational expenses such as security, utilities, snow removal and general maintenance of the lots, allowing valuable health care funding to go towards providing quality patient care services,” Susan Duncan, an Interior Health communications officer, wrote in an email to iNFOnews.ca.

The health region has five paid parking sites at hospitals in Kelowna, Kamloops, Penticton, Vernon and Cranbrook. There are five other sites in Kelowna, mostly for staff, whose parking is also free.

At Kelowna General Hospital, revenues are down by about $162,000 a month.

Early on in the pandemic, usage at parking lots fell as elective surgeries were cut, visiting was restricted and some staff worked from home.

“However, the visitor parkade began filling again in mid-June and the assumption is that many of the vehicles belong to staff who are waiting for on-site parking passes,” Duncan wrote, adding the parkades are not overflowing and there have not been parking complaints from neighbours.

It will be up to the province to decide when, and if, paid parking will resume. It's unclear how the shortfall in funding will be recovered.


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics

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