Lakeshore Hospital made $2M in parking profits in 2014-15

GaylleAubuchon, who liveson a disability pension andneeds frequent treatment at the Lakeshore General Hospital, estimates she has paid more than $8,000 in hospital parking fees in the past six years.

Parking rates at thePointe-Clairehospital max out at $14 daily, after 90 minutes. Itadds up quickly.

The Lakeshore General Hospital made $2.05 million in profitsfrom parking fees in 2014-15, but the hospital administration's financialrecords don't show where that money went.

It's a captive audience: No one goes to the hospital because they want to,- Lakeshore Hospital employees' union president Denise LaPointe

Claire Roy, the spokeswoman for the health agency that runs the Lakeshorethe Montreal West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre (CIUSSS)said all proceedsare reinvestedin parkingmaintenance and related services.

Roy citesrepaving,groundskeeping, snow removal, maintainingmechanical and computerized equipment, as well as contributing towards the salaries ofsecurity guards.

However, the president of the hospital's employees' union, DeniseLapointe, saysit's difficult tobelieve it costs more than $2 million to operate the Lakeshore Hospital's parking lot.

Parking proceeds tripled in 6 years

In the last six years, proceeds from parking at the Lakeshorehave nearly tripled.

In 2008-09, parking fees raisedabout $727,000, and in 2013-14, that figure was just shy of $2 million.

LaPointe says that's one of the reasons why her unionrefused a proposed fee increase for employees in January 2015.

"I know where a certain part of it went to because it's traceable in the financial record," said Lapointe."But other than that, I have no idea."

One section in the 426-page annual report breaks down the parking lot's expenses, indicating they amounted to close to $330,000 in2014-15. That left a $2.05-million surplus.

When CBC pointed that out, the MontrealWest Island CIUSSSsaid that according to provincial regulations, all surpluses can be spent on the hospital's other needs, includingclinical tasks, renovations andhuman resources.

The CIUSSS didn'trespond to CBC'srequestfor a list of the programs or improvements that $2 million went towards.

A small portion of the $2 milliondoes pop up again in the financial document:In 2014-15, some$64,000 in parking profits was allocated to medicaladministrative fees. The MontrealWest Island CIUSSS wouldn'tcomment on what that cost represents.

Sticker shock across Quebec

Hospital parking fees have been a point of contention in Quebec, with the McGill University Health Centre now charging $25 a day at its new Glen site.

The oppositionCoalition AvenirQubec has launched a websiteurging Quebecers to complain about the price of hospital parking. The siteemails those complaintsdirectly to Health Minister Gatan Barrette's office.

The CAQ wants to cap daily parking fees at $10 a day across the province. In January, Ontario froze all hospitalparking ratesfor the next three years, calling them a "barrier to health care."

According to the CAQ, at least a dozen Quebec hospitals charge $15 or more per day for parking.

"Users of the health care establishments are unjustly targeted," the CAQ website says, "because they are often the elderly or the chronically ill, or people with reduced mobility."

LaPointeconcurs.

"It's disgusting that the institutions across Quebec, and especially in the West Island, are making money off the backs of sick people and their families," the union president said."It's a captive audience: No one goes to the hospital because they want to."

The Lakeshore offers a preferential rate for patients needing recurring care but only if they need regular kidney dialysis or cancer treatments.

Gaylle Aubuchon doesn't qualify.

"I would like to see where that $2 million went," the patient says, "because I would like to see my services improve instead of going down."