REGINA - After years of planning and months of construction activity, the brand new Regina General Hospital Parkade is ready to open.
The province has officially cut the ribbon on the new parkade in ceremonies at RGH on Thursday. It will open for vehicles beginning this coming Monday, Dec. 16 with 1,005 parking spaces, an increase of 686 more spaces overall for the parking lot.
The new lot is four levels high and includes 320 parking spaces for the public and 685 for staff. The 320 public parking spaces are on the main floor while the staff parking is in a secured area with swipe card access.
As for how much parking fees will cost, the fees will remain the same as what was in place on the lot before for both visitors and staff.
The new lot is state of the art, and includes features such as a display of the available lots, sensors to open and close doors, and EV charging stations for electric vehicles. There are six pay-by-use charging stations available for staff and four for visitors. There are also secure areas for staff to be able to access their vehicles.
The thinking is this will make it much safer and more convenient for those coming to RGH in the future, including those who work there on a regular basis including during the night. Officials are saying the waitlist for staff to access parking will be cut by 70 per cent.
“You know, it's important, I would say both for visitors who are receiving care and for the staff who work in this building, to make sure that they've got a safe place to park,” said Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill at the announcement.
“That's going to make it so much easier for staff who have been on a waitlist for parking to now have access to a parking spot right here on the hospital site. And also just for patients who may be visiting a loved one or coming and using the emergency department here, just a better parking situation for them in general.”
The parkade was built as part of a public-private partnership with Link Developments who is the developer and operator of the facility. Link will maintain the facility and the SHA has a long-term lease with them of 30 years. The province’s contribution was $22.4 million for capital.
Construction began in the fall of 2023 and as of Dec. 12 the whole structure was almost finished, with crews doing the finishing touches on the exterior.
“We worked with Link and this model really helped us deliver a project quickly,” Cockrill said. “And that's really why we chose to build this project under the model. That's why we chose Link as our partner on this. And again, I think having a longterm lease gives predictability to Link as a landlord. It gives predictability to the staff in this facility and really it gives cost predictability to government longterm.”
Saskatchewan Health Authority Chief Operating Officer Derek Miller said the parkade was needed because the existing lot was having to accommodate a growing number of patients and visitors.
“That limits the amount of parking for staff, and we ended up having a pretty significant wait list for staff for parking, and they had to have alternate arrangements parking in the surrounding neighbourhood, or other ways to be able to get to work every day, and there were, sometimes there were safety concerns if they had to walk long distances to be able to get back to their car during nighttime shift change.”
The parkade will be able to accommodate most of the staff wait list, but not all of it.
“We do have other ways of providing support to people that are parking on site,” Miller said. “We have a park and ride program where we have lots that are located off site, and we provide a shuttle service to and from those, so that remains an option for people.”
Miller said they plan to monitor the use of the parkade. He believed that over the next number of months and over the next year, they should have a “really good understanding of how far we can go in terms of addressing the people that may still be waiting for parking.”
There had been months of parking disruption during the construction period for visitors and staff. Miller indicated the feedback from staff is they are pleased to see the new parkade get up and running.
“Yeah, just walking in and talking to a few team members here today, there's a lot of excitement. People are really, they've endured the construction period, which displaced some parking in order to actually get the building constructed, and they've seen it go up in front of them, and now they're just really eager to get in there, and we look forward over the next couple weeks to actually hear their feedback, and be able to share that, as it is going to be very significant for them.”
Officials from the province and SHA and other dignitaries were taken for a tour of the parkade. The parkade is build using a precast system and the thinking is it can last a long time, with the design able to accommodate expansion if needed.
"I foresee this parkade lasting, you know, 60, 70 years,” said Link Developments Founder and Principal Carmen Lien.
“The technical requirements were over 50 years. But with the precast systems that we're seeing across the country and other parkade using the system, they could last 70, 80 years, depending on how well we take care of them.”
