WINNIPEG — Frustrated Winnipeggers are asking why they have to pay for parking when they’re coming to the hospital for themselves or to visit a loved one. Calling free parking at the casino unfair.
Hospitals are backed by tax payers, but casinos are publicly run too.
Maggie Harty said as she made her way to a loved ones bedside in hospital, her focus had to be split as she worried about continuously paying for parking too.
“It’s disappointing, very disappointing. I understand there needs to be control, but the prices – just ridiculous.”
Neither the province nor liquor and lotteries would agree to go on camera to answer whether they feel this is an unfair situation. All a spokesperson for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries would say is their customers expect to get free parking and they have no intention to charge people.
Erin Crawford with the Canadian Cancer Society questioned, “why are we able to find a solution where that is free and the cancer patient pays?”
She said she doesn’t agree to cancer patients or any patients having to foot the bill of parking at the hospital that they may have to go to on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis for treatment or appointments that impact their well-being.
In a statement to Global News, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said government funding doesn’t cover parking lot maintenance and that revenue from parking lot payments goes directly back in to services or parking infrastructure.
Crawford said if casinos figured out a way to do it, so should hospitals.