Sask. Party pondering parkade at General Hospital

The provincial government is hoping the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and the private sector can get creative with a solution to the lack of parking spaces and security concerns at Regina’s General Hospital.

The Sask. Party government announced Monday it has directed the SHA to examine the feasibility of a parkade that would be privately built, owned and operated at the General.

“The SHA has been working on this for many months. There’s been safety concerns and parking concerns around Regina General for quite some time,” Health Minister Jim Reiter told reporters at the legislature Monday.

“The reason that we want to go this route is obviously we want to use health-care dollars for health care and not to build a parkade.”

Reiter noted the SHA has taken short-term steps to address safety concerns with a park-and-ride program and a security walking program, but now it’s time to find a long-term plan.

He said the SHA will sit down with private companies to study the cost of a parkade and then build a request for proposals around what it finds.

“I would hope most people would see what we’re trying to do here is avoid tying up dollars that could be used for health care in building a parkade when the private sector is certainly capable of doing that,” Reiter said. “I think most people — regardless of who operates it — will be pleased if and when we get to the point that there’s more available parking.”

Reiter also noted he has told the health authority to examine solutions which won’t compromise the SHA revenue which currently comes from the paid parking lot at the General.

The announcement came six days after the NDP called on the government to commit to building a parkade.

The Opposition maintained the current situation at the hospital doesn’t offer enough spots in the parking lot and forces people to walk to their cars on nearby streets.

“Nurses and health-care workers, patients and their families, everyone who needs to access our hospitals deserves to do so as safely and as conveniently as possible,” NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat said in a media release issued Feb. 25.

“The wait list for a staff parking spot is up to 11 years, staff fear for their own safety or vandalism of their vehicle when they have to walk blocks to their car after a night shift, and family members of patients are spending time hunting for parking spots that they should be spending with their loved ones.”

In response to the government’s announcement Monday, NDP Opposition Leader Ryan Meili said his top two questions about a potential parkade would be whether a Saskatchewan company would build, own and operate it, and whether the price to park there would be affordable.

“We know people are paying way too high of rates to park in hospitals and it’s a big barrier to care,” Meili said. “One: Will this project actually keep it affordable? And two, will the build be done by a Saskatchewan company?”

The government said the results of the feasibility study are expected by the spring, with a final decision to be made on the project by the summer.