NL Health Services is contemplating the possibility of introducing free parking at health care facilities, similar to what’s being done in the Halifax region—but when, where and if remains up for discussion.

The Nova Scotia government recently introduced a new free-parking policy at health care facilities but Health Minister Michelle Thompson admits to “growing pains” just two weeks in, indicating that the policy is coming head-to-head with limited parking availability in the Nova Scotia capital.

As a result, Haligonians having trouble finding parking are taking advantage of spaces meant for patients and hospital staff.

Eastern Health in St. John’s introduced paid parking at the Health Sciences and St. Clare’s years ago for that very reason.

Senior Director of Infrastructure Support with NL Health Services, Steven Lockyer, says free parking is something they’re open to discussing, but there are no timelines, and it’s not clear whether or not it’s something that will actually come to fruition.

“That is something that we would contemplate,” says Lockyer. “We continuously look for ways to improve access and parking availability at all of our facilities, and that’s something we’ve considered over time.” However, says Lockyer, ‘it’s important that we maintain parking at our health care facilities for health care-related business, and paid parking is one of the things that’s helped us maintain the parking for people when they arrive for health services.”