The parkade at the IWK Health Centre on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. Photo by Ryan Taplin /The Chronicle HeraldArticle contentThe IWK Health Centre has implemented changes as part of the move toward free patient and visitor parking.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentThe adjustments introduced Wednesday apply specifically to the University Avenue parkade, the only designated parking area for the facility. Article contentArticle contentAccording to an email statement from the IWK, when free parking was introduced in May, the facility did not yet have the infrastructure to validate parking for each visitor. Manually issuing the estimated 20,000-30,000 passes required for patients and visitors was considered operationally unfeasible. To manage access in the meantime, protection services officers were placed at the University Avenue parkade to ensure only authorized users entered. Article contentArticle contentOver recent months, the IWK used a “sustainable parking validation system,” reinstating the use of gate arms and introducing measures to prevent unauthorized parking. The changes have the goal of standardizing patient access to the facility, as well as giving staff more facility parking access. The statement says the facility “does not have sufficient parking to accommodate all staff.”Article contentCurrently, parking capacity at the IWK includes 250 first-come, first-serve spaces that are shared with the Victoria General Site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre and 100 parking spaces in the women’s building, in addition to another 80 remote spaces that have been added within the past year. Article contentThe IWK also said there will be further increases in the next year with the opening of the new emergency department, providing an extra 200 staff spaces.Article contentArticle contentThe facility also subsidizes 75 per cent of the cost of bus passes for staff and tries to promote active transport options in order to address limited parking. Article contentThe new validation system is similar to one in use at Nova Scotia Health facilities like the QEII, which implemented parking validation in May. Parking for those sites is managed by Partners for Care and includes the 250 spots shared with the IWK. Article contentPartners for Care CEO Christa Akerman said that when the system was first implemented at the sites, volunteers handled most validation of tickets, leading to inconsistencies. Article content“Any areas where we felt we needed to make some improvements, we have,” Akerman said. Article contentOne of those areas was the capacity to enforce parking rules. She said that originally there were only registration desks at the three main entrances to the facility, while administrative staff supplemented in smaller areas.
IWK Health Centre in Halifax works to improve parking access
