Premier Kathleen Wynne has turned her attention to hospital parking fees, reminding patients and their families that prices for long stays have been cut 50 per cent.

“Patients have made it clear they’re frustrated by the high rates,” Wynne said Monday, echoing concerns about hydro rates that prompted her promise to rebate the 8 per cent provincial tax on electricity starting in January.

“Parking fees can add up quickly,” she added in the lobby of the Hospital for Sick Children, where a five-day pass that used to cost $100 has been chopped to $50 since the cut took effect Saturday.

Trailing the Progressive Conservatives in a recent poll and with the next provincial election looming in 19 months, Wynne and cabinet ministers have been on a “pocketbook” push to convince voters they are paying attention to strains on family finances.

Her throne speech last month included the hydro rebate as the government has come under increasing criticism for electricity prices, particularly after a long hot summer when many families had their air conditioners running non-stop.

The parking fee cut — first announced in January — applies only at hospitals that own their parking lots and garages, although the government has asked the minority of hospitals that rely on private contractors for parking facilities to give motorists a break.

Daily rates were also frozen in January until 2019, and then can only rise by the rate of inflation.

The changes apply only to hospitals where daily parking rates are more than $10 daily.

Under the new rules, hospitals must sell parking passes good for five, 10 and 30 days that are half the price of the daily rate, transferable to other patients, caregivers and vehicles, include in-and-out privileges and valid for non-consecutive days for one year from the date of purchase.

Patients and families dealing with long-term treatments or hospital stays are dealing with enough pressure, said Wynne, who pledged relief in the 2014 election campaign that vaulted her to a majority government.

“It’s stressful enough to have to make frequent trips to a hospital that families shouldn’t have to worry about spending an exorbitant amount of money in order to park.”

“This is money that can go back into the family budget.”

Patient groups have complained many Ontarians are making long trips and staying in hotels, along with time off work, to deal with illnesses in their families, with considerable financial strain.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins acknowledged that hospitals — which earned about $100 million a year from parking — will feel the pinch of lost revenue.

“We will be monitoring the situation closely with our hospitals, and with the OHA (Ontario Hospital Association) to make sure there are no untoward effects,” he told reporters.

“We want to make sure the cost of parking is never a barrier to access of the health care system.”

Hospital parking rates have been controversial for some time, with hospitals using parking fees to subsidize the rising costs of delivering health care as government funding comes increasingly under pressure.

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath blamed government underfunding of hospitals for forcing parking rates up.

“This should have been done a long, long time ago,” she said of the parking price caps. “Fees should never have climbed to the place they are at now. It’s families who were paying the price all the while.”

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