“My motion to eliminate hospital parking fees has been endorsed by the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario Nurses’ Association and tens of thousands of Ontarians who have signed our petition.” – Jeff Burch, NDP MPP for Niagara Centre
The Following Is A June 2nd Exchange between Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch & Ford Government Health Minister Sylvia Jones In the Legislative Assembly Of Ontario
Posted June 3rd, 2025 on Niagara At Large
Niagara Falls NDP MPP Jeff Burch at work in the Ontario legislature
(From the Hansard) – Mr. Jeff Burch: Speaker, through you to the Minister of Health: Debbie MacGregor’s mother passed away earlier this year after a seven-year battle with cancer. Throughout that time, Debbie collected a stack of parking receipts at the hospital. She and her daughter spent over $7,000 on parking, just to be with her mom as she passed.
My motion to eliminate hospital parking fees has been endorsed by the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario Nurses’ Association and tens of thousands of Ontarians who have signed our petition.
Does the minister understand that this is a tax on the sick, and will she support my motion on June 4 to eliminate hospital parking fees in Ontario?
Hon. Sylvia Jones (Ontario Health Minister): I certainly sympathize with the family and that need to want to be with their loved ones as they are undergoing treatment in our hospitals-and of course visiting palliative as well. But we have a hospital parking directive to help reduce financial burden for hospital parking fees on patients and, of course, frequent visitors. That ensures that we reduce the barriers and increase access to health care.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones
Since 2019, Speaker, hospitals have been limited to increasing their daily maximum parking rates by the annual percentage change of the CPI. Hospitals that charge a daily maximum rate for the parking facility that is more than $10 are required to offer 5-day, 10-day and indeed 30-day parking passes with discounted rates. These are the policies that we’ve put in place to ensure that individuals like your constituent have the ability to visit their loved ones in hospital.
The Speaker (Hon. Donna Skelly): Supplementary?
Mr. Jeff Burch: Speaker, the PC government in Nova Scotia found a way to do it; there’s no reason this government can’t find a way to do it.
Families are paying for health care with their credit card, not their OHIP card-something the Premier says shouldn’t happen.
To add your name, click on – https://jeffburch.ontariondp.ca/nic-hospital-parking-fees
Gay Willing of Port Colborne has spent hundreds of dollars on parking this year. Her husband has cancer and requires regular scans and appointments for treatment. These visits are essential, but parking fees are adding a heavy financial burden for their family as they battle cancer.
Does this minister agree that these fees create an unfair and unnecessary barrier to health care access, and will she listen to the citizens of Ontario and work with us to finally eliminate them?
Hon. Sylvia Jones: Speaker, I think it’s really important that we don’t just grasp on to simplistic solutions for complicated problems. We have in place a directive to ensure that people have access and have those discounted parking rates ensure that people have access and have those discounted parking rates. But we also have to acknowledge that our hospitals are using these parking fees to ensure that the world-class access is there, the treatment and equipment is there, and that is where the parking fees are going today.
To simply say “eliminate them” is actually going to put additional pressure of course on our hospitals and mean that in the long term we have to make sure that the sustainability of the system is there. Respectfully, I do not believe that the member opposite’s proposal achieves that result.
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