The Editor,
I have one question to all the [Surrey] candidates who are running for council and the mayor's position: Where do you stand on the burning issue of very expensive parking in and around Surrey hospitals?
When someone gets sick in the family, it is not a very pleasant situation to begin with, but it is like adding insult to injury when one has to pay a very high parking rate in and around the Surrey hospitals.
All possible free parking on the streets around the hospitals has been eliminated, including Surrey Memorial Hospital and Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. Patients and their families have no option but to get ripped off at the pay-parking lots, which are getting pricier and pricier every coming year.
Near Delta Hospital, for example, not only is the parking free on the streets around the hospital, but the hospital parking lot is free as well.
This is a calculated and deliberate attempt to pick the pocket of patients and their families at the worst time: when someone is sick and has no option but to surrender to this robbery in the name of pay parking.
Such schemes are made in back rooms by bureaucrats who are not directly answerable to the public. There should be some compassion to patients; they do not get sick by choice and when they get sick, they have no choice but to go to the hospital. They should not be forced to pay a further tax in the name of pay parking.
Kalwant Singh Sahota
Delta