Dear editor,
Re: the parking problem at the new hospital and the suggestion taxpayers should pay for it.
Everyone is ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room: Why does anyone need to pay for parking at the hospital? The aquatic centre and the college have managed for years without paid parking. The nearby malls have as well. So has downtown, in fact everywhere in the Valley except the hospital.
The fact is there does not need to be any charge for parking at the hospital, the only reason for charging is to fill the coffers of the corporation that owns it by taking advantage of those who need hospital care and have no choice but to pay. Talk about sick ... what a sick idea having to pay for parking at hospitals is in the first place.
With free parking, there’s no need to pay a salary to someone to go around ticketing delinquent people, no need to add more stress to people’s lives who are already dealing with health issues, no need to punish the users of surrounding facilities who will now have to pay to park just so the hospital owners can rake in cash.
After all, who is going to park at the hospital just for the fun of it? Only people who need to will park there, and why should they, as the only people in the Comox Valley, have to pay to do so?
The obvious solution to the huge turmoil created by hospital paid parking, is just have free parking instead. Then the aquatic centre and the university can carry on with the free parking they’ve had for years, and people needing hospital care and their families can park without fees and fears of tickets.
I urge people to loudly make their views known: that we do not want or need paid parking at the new hospital, and ditto for the new Campbell River hospital too. Let’s put a stop to this money grab that preys on the people who least need to be preyed upon, before it ever gets started at the new hospital. Speak up!
Summer Joy
Merville10:52:19