Interior Health handed out 19,401 tickets for parking infractions in 2019 and less than half have actually been paid.

About a quarter of the fines were voided and the remaining tickets are outstanding.

Parking Manager Craig Paynton says there’s a high rate of waived and cancelled tickets because it tries to be very understanding about the challenges one may be facing as they attend the hospital. “So we approach it on a case-by-case basis, but in reality there’s very few instances where there is a legitimate financial hardship or medical condition or emergent situation where somebody has experienced an issue with parking where we haven’t been able to find a solution.”

Paynton says they often see people who are upset about a ticket take out their frustrations on someone who can’t actually help. “Don’t get panicked by the fact that you got a ticket, there’s usually always a solution. If is a matter of intentionally not paying parking fees that’s a little bit different, but usually we can always find a solution. So don’t take it out on anybody there’s always an option and we can help somebody work through that.”

Paynton says the majority of fines are given for infractions like parking in the wrong place or just simply not paying. He says it needs to charge for parking because it doesn’t want to divert funds for patient care to pay for a parking lot. “Unfortunately the ability to park on site isn’t necessarily conducive to the specific care somebody might be experiencing, but we want to make sure it’s available. So we want to strike that balance.”

2018 stats show that Interior Health made $5.3 million in parking revenue, which accounted for just 0.24% of its budget.