MONTREAL- A South Shore family has run into a snarl of red tape at Quebec's automobile insurance board while seeking a disabled parking permit for their second car.

Andrea Cleary, whose son, Simon, suffers from muscular dystrophy, cannot legally park in a handicapped spot when she drops her son off at school.

Simon's father, Jean-Francois Hogue, has the family's only permit and uses it to pick the boy up at the end of the day.

"Because we only have one vignette we've had to choose who takes it because we don't see each other during the day," said Andrea. "We've left it the majority of the time with my husband. It's at the end of the day when Simon is most tired."

Simon is being treated with steroids, which stunt his growth, and is capable of walking short distances.

The natural progression of his form of the disease will see the ten-year-old confined to a wheelchair in his early teens. Both parents are seeking a permit to ease the toll it the condition takes on him.

"We shouldn't have to choose when he needs it the most. He's always handicapped," said Andrea.

After multiple phone calls, and speaking with multiple bureaucrats at the SAAQ, Quebec's automobile insurance board, Andrea was told that it was not the agency's policy to provide two parking permits for the same individual.

After a CTV News investigation, the SAAQ admitted there are exceptions, and it occasionally issues families two permits.

Simon's parents encountered no problems receiving their first permit, but the second has proven to be much more difficult.

"They just kept saying that it's not their policy," said Andrea.

Her family is not alone; the SAAQ received just over 27,000 requests in 2009 for disabled parking permits, and close to 6000 were refused.

When Andrea asked CTV News to intervene, she learned from SAAQ spokesperson Nathalie Normand that the SAAQ can issue a second permit in some circumstances.

"We do in exceptional cases. Very few families have two permits," said Normand, adding that a second permit is not automatically provided upon request.

"It's not a given that a second permit is granted. And it's possible the SAAQ phone agents did not know (it was allowed)," said Normand.

Andrea has now applied in writing for a second permit, which Normand said is the best way to have a request for a second permit granted.

A complete analysis of the dossier could take up to six weeks.

Andrea offered advice to others in her position.

"I guess they (the SAAQ) think they'll just take no for an answer and quit -- don't quit," she said.