MONTREAL – The first two hours of parking will be free for anyone going to the hospital, Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann announced Monday.
“Most people who visit hospitals, they stay for two hours or less,” she said. “For the daily cost, it's going to be $7 or $10 depending on the situation, the region.”
The proposed reduced parking fee was a promise the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) made during its election campaign in 2018.
McCann estimates changing parking rates in hospitals across the province will cost the government about $150 million a year.
She said there will also be a plan for people who visit hospitals regularly for treatment, such as chemotherapy and hemodialysis.
“For those people, we want to have a very, very optimal cost, very low for all those people across Quebec,” McCann said.
“It's done in many places, but we want everyone to adopt that procedure. So, we are reviewing everything right now.”
The minister could not say when the new fees will be made available to the public. In September, she insisted it would happen before the 2022 elections.
“Well, we’ll see,” she said when asked if it would be in the upcoming economic update.
Currently, anyone who parks at a hospital in the province pays around $25 a day.
