Grieving grandfather calls for hospital parking passes after teen's death

Those with loved ones in hospital know that visiting comes with more than an emotional cost. Parking can run up to $15 per day.

Dennis Alexiukis familiar with paying the price he visited his teenage granddaughter, Candace Hamilton, at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre before she died of bone cancer in April 2015.

Alexiuk said in retrospect, his family could have saved money and considerable worry that they would fail to pay the meter on time had a parking pass been an option.Now, that's preciselywhat he's proposing to the Manitoba government.

"It's bad enough that you have somebody fighting for their life in the hospital and if you're distracted by the doctor or nurse and you fail to meet the meter on time, you're ticketed," he said.

Grieving grandfather calls for hospital parking passes after teen's death

8 years ago

Duration 1:49

Dennis Alexiuk presented the New Democratic Party with a petition calling for parking passes for families with loved ones in hospital following the death of his 16-year-old granddaughter, Candace Hamilton.

On Wednesday, the province'sNew Democratic Party presented a petition Alexiuk had passed around at Kenaston Memorial Church during Hamilton's funeral more than a year ago. By the end of the service, he had collected more than 400 signatures.

"Will the Minister of Health honour Candace's memory and this petition and look at creating this Candace Card parking pass," asked NDP MLA Matt Wiebein the legislature on Wednesday.

"We sat around when we were visiting in the hospital and the cost of parking had come up. I said, 'Well, we should have something done about it even though it's late for Candace but other families would benefit from it,'" Alexiuk said.

Calling Hamilton an inspiration, Alexiuk said his granddaughter was a fighter and her determination is also motivating him to bring change forward.

"She went to school and they made arrangements with the school bus to pick her up in the wheelchair," he said.

"She'd get to school in the wheelchair and she'd park the wheelchair and use crutches to get around the school."

Alexiuk's concerns echo the ones cancer patient Collin Kennedy expressed when he destroyed a parking meter using spray foam in front of CancerCare Manitoba on May 31. He summarized his reaction to Kennedy's actions in one word: "Hurray."

• Cancer patient fed up with high parking fees at Health Sciences Centre

Manitoba's Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen is not against Alexiuk's proposal, either.

"I think anything that [can be done] to try to reduce the burden on families who are going through difficult times whether that's cancer or whether that's diabetes or different sorts of long-term challenges that people are having the the medical system is valuable to look at," he said.