Parking ticket in free Regina lot catches family by surprise

WATCH: Hospital parking fees have long been a contentious issue. Wayne Mantyka has the story of an incident at Regina’s Urgent Care Centre.

Parking is supposed to be free at Regina’s new urgent care centre, but one Regina family says they were ticketed for staying in the centre’s parking lot too long.

Kim Anderson Cobb was in a rush to get a family member to the urgent care centre.

“I came to urgent care with a family member who was violently ill, they were sick and throwing up about every 10 minutes,” she said.

Unlike Regina’s two hospitals, parking at the urgent care centre is free, but patients are asked at the door to provide their licence plate number and an estimate of how long they plan to be there.

“As we came to the doors of urgent care, we were asked to stop and put our plate number into an iPad and then choose how many hours we think we might be here. I had no idea how many hours. I asked the person, and they said pick a higher number so I picked five, I thought.” Anderson Cobb said.

• Download the CTV News app for local breaking news alerts on your smartphone

Anderson Cobb said she came back to a $50 ticket on her windshield and right away started questioning what would be the reason for having a ticket for that amount.

“I came out of urgent care in an emergency situation, the last thing I am thinking of is a ticket or my parking fee,” she said.

In an email sent to the family the Saskatchewan Health Authority said there is an option on the data pad to enter a possible stay of 24 hours. “As parking is free at that facility we would encourage you to utilize this option,” the email read.

The ticket was eventually written off by the Saskatchewan health Authority and the family says it received excellent care but does not know why patients are asked how long they expect to stay if they don’t know the answer.