'A tax on sick people': Ottawa hospitals have record-breaking year for parking revenue
- Elizabeth Payne
- Jun 2
- 1 min read
While Nova Scotia eliminated parking fees at all health-care sites across the province, Ottawa is building the city's largest paid parking garage next to a new hospital campus.
By Elizabeth Payne
Published Jun 02, 2025
On a recent visit to Ottawa, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles met with MPPs and toured the new Civic hospital construction site, including the massive parking garage now under construction. But her first stop was more personal.
She spent the morning with her elderly father who had been taken to the emergency department at the General campus of The Ottawa Hospital and was undergoing tests. But one person was noticeably absent during her hospital visit: her mom.
Stiles’ mother is in good health, but she didn’t wait at the hospital with her husband because she was concerned about the high cost of hospital parking.
“They are fixed-income seniors. They can’t afford it—and they’ve spent so many hundreds of dollars already on parking fees,” said Stiles.
They are far from alone. Across the province, patients and advocates say the high cost of parking at a hospital amounts to a tax on sick people and their families at a time they can least afford it.
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