Parking fees generate millions of dollars in revenue for Ottawa’s largest hospital

Paying for parking at the Ottawa Hospital can be a pain, but the large amount of money raised pays for important projects. CTV’s Dave Charbonneau reports.

Patients, staff and visitors paid millions of dollars to park at the Ottawa Hospital last year, as Ottawa’s largest hospital saw a significant increase in parking revenue.

The Ottawa Hospital’s financial statements show the hospital took in $27,576 million in parking revenue from parking lots at the Civic Campus, General Campus and Riverside Campus during the 2024-25 fiscal year, up from $25,546 million in 2023-24.

An Ottawa Hospital spokesperson says the $2 million in additional parking revenue is due to an increase in parking rates and an added “off-site parking to support the hospital’s growing needs.”

“Parking revenues support key capital projects, much-needed updates and improvements to the parking facilities at all three campuses, as well as buying medical equipment and building new patient care environments,” the hospital spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa. “These areas are not publicly funded for hospitals.”

Last October, the Ottawa Hospital increased parking rates for patients, visitors and staff by 3.9 per cent.

According to the Ottawa Hospital website, the short-term parking rates are $8.30 for 30 minutes to one hour, and a daily maximum of $15.60. A daily pass is $15.60, and a weekly pass is $52.

“I mean, if you’re only going in for half an hour, it’s not bad. But we’re going in on a daily basis because our brothers in here. And that makes a big difference, in the case of a week,” Willy Wilgress said at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus.

Vicky Wilgress said hospital parking prices are “high” and they will look for free parking options.

“I don’t want to pay that much. So if I could find an alternative, I don’t mind walking a little bit in order to have free parking.”

The Ottawa Hospital has seen parking revenues increase from $19,984 million during the 2018-19 fiscal year to $20,860 million in 2022-23 and to $27,576 million last fiscal year.

“So long as the money is being used to fund hospital programs, you know, that’s fine,” visitor Helen Lucker said Wednesday.

The Ottawa Hospital’s new Civic Campus near Dow’s Lake will include a parking garage with approximately 3,000 parking spaces.

The Montfort Hospital told CTV News Ottawa parking revenues were $2,144 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025.

“This amount was invested almost entirely in education and research through the Institut du Savoir Montfort, our knowledge institute,” a spokesperson for the Montfort Hospital said in a statement.

At the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, parking revenue for the 2023-24 fiscal year was $4,887,871, up from $4,166,525 the year before.

“Proceeds from parking are re-invested in parking operations and care at the hospital. Parking proceeds help to fund things like medical equipment which are not funded by the government,” a spokesperson for the Queensway-Carleton Hospital told CTV News Ottawa.

At CHEO, parking revenues are collected by the CHEO Foundation and distributed to CHEO “as needed to support the most urgent priorities such as equipment, programs, family support or research,” the children’s hospital told CTV News Ottawa.

According to the CHEO Foundation’s 2024 financial statement, the foundation earned $4.402 million from parking operations in 2024, up from $4 million in 2023.

The Kingston Health Sciences Centre’s fiscal report shows the Kingston, Ont. hospital received $796,000 from parking revenue in 2024-25, up from $650,000 the year before.

In May, NDP MPP Jeff Burch introduced a motion in the Ontario Legislature, calling on the Ontario government to eliminate hospital parking fees at hospitals. The motion was defeated.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Dave Charbonneau