Parking prices set to jump at Alberta hospitals

CALGARY- While parking is a premium in many of Alberta’s cities, it’s especially painful for those using a stall at hospitals in our province-and it’s about to get worse.

Starting April 1st, parking rate increases will be phased in over the next three years. That means a monthly pass at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, for example, will cost $150 by 2015-a $45 jump.

“It’s another sort of a taxation, you have to pay to come to work,” complains Diane Lantz, from the United Nurses of Alberta. “We had no input into the parking rate increase. Anyone working at the hospital feels they’re paying far too much for parking, for not being downtown.”

Alberta Health Services says the hike is a result of their annual market analysis of parking rates across Canada, and that health spending is only used for patient care. That means AHS must rely on parking rates to pay for maintenance in their lots.

The change will see seniors pay $75 per month, a jump of $9 by 2015.

“You’re getting more older people coming through the system than kids, they’re the ones you’re impacting,” says Luanne Whitmarsh from the Kirby Centre. “They don’t get an increase in pension, they get an increase in cost. They’re getting hit every which way.”

There is one silver lining, however: AHS is reducing parking rates at long-term care facilities by $20.

Click here for a full list of parking prices.

With files from Bindu Suri