Disabled permit prominently displayed on their dash, the couple pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot's disabled parking spot and hopped out of their van.
Arm in arm, the couple, perhaps in their 30s, casually strolled to the store. No limp, no shortness of breath, no apparent reason for the disabled pass.
Approached by a Free Press reporter, the couple admitted the disabled parking permit belonged to a woman "back at their home." Visibly embarrassed, red-faced with their heads tucked down, they picked up the pace and shot into the store. Fifteen minutes later, the woman returned to the van and moved it to a regular parking spot -- where, according to the rules about disabled parking pass use, it should have been left in the first place.
The misuse of disabled parking permits is a problem occurring in jurisdictions across Canada, and some believe it's getting worse.
"People are just passing them (parking permits) along to their family to use, and in my personal opinion, doctors are giving them away like candy," said Terry McIntosh, chairwoman of the Manitoba League for Persons with Disabilities. McIntosh, 46, has used a wheelchair all her life.
"I know it is hard for me to judge a person with a disability. But when you see people get into a car with a big TV box, it's like, 'Hmmm, what is your disability?'"
McIntosh says it is frustrating for people with disabilities to see able-bodied people park in designated spots. She doesn't drive, but she has a van and attendants who take her where she needs to go.
"I go shopping every Sunday at Wal-Mart. When I get there, there are people (who shouldn't be) in the wheelchair parking... you see people sitting there waiting for their wife to come out of the store, and I end up parking at the very end where the spots are smaller," McIntosh said.
"In the last month, I have been so frustrated. I give them the glare, but they don't care."
Nancy Russell, manager of the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities' (SMD) parking permit program says she receives a lot of calls from disabled people who are upset.
"They will go to Shoppers Drug Mart to get their medication and then sit and sit and sit and leave without getting their medication because someone is misusing a parking spot."
Although the image of a vehicle parked in a disabled spot without a pass enrages disabled Winnipeggers, the system is also being abused by permit holders who loan them to relatives, and by drivers who no longer require permits.
"A lot of times I see people and I think, 'Oh my God, that can't be for them,'" said Melissa LeCuyer, who uses a walker and says she was "shocked" recently when she found a disabled parking spot available at the Forks.
"Maybe they should just be given out to people with wheelchairs and walkers."
Some people accuse SMD of distributing disabled parking permits too freely, but last week the Human Rights Commission accused the organization of unjustly denying some people access to a pass after a 53-year old man with Raynaud's Disease, a neurological and circulatory illness, had his application rejected.
Russell said that determining eligibility for disabled parking permits can be challenging.
"It's a tough balancing act. There are more permits than parking spots. You try to look at it, be fair and weigh all the factors," she said.
Currently, there are 39,000 disabled parking permits in circulation around Winnipeg, 3,800 of which were issued on a temporary basis of three months to three years. Many passes are not returned once a holder either no longer needs it or has died, and that's a big part of the problem. Officials can easily catch vehicles parked, without a pass, in a disabled spot, but it's much tougher to catch those misusing the passes.
Last year, the Winnipeg Parking Authority issued 3,476 parking tickets of $200 for cars parked in designated disabled parking spaces without having a valid permit displayed. By the end of June this year, 3,000 notices had been issued.
But monitoring the use of the permits already in circulation can be challenging for the SMD parking permit program staff of three, funded by the $12.50 fee collected for every permit issued.
Russell said the best police are Winnipeggers themselves.
"The public is the best watchdog. People call in who are frustrated" at seeing people abuse disabled parking spots, said Russell.
She said most abusers are family members who either use the permit when the disabled party isn't present or when they are left sitting in the car.
"It's for the convenience of the disabled, not the driver," she said.
Last Wednesday, an able-bodied middle-aged man walked from the Starbucks on River Avenue and Osborne Street to his car parked in a designated disabled space. The blue disabled parking pass was hanging in clear sight from his rear-view mirror; his 83-year-old disabled mother was in the passenger seat.
"I don't own the car, and I'm not handicapped," the man told a Free Press reporter.
"Go ahead and abuse it. Who cares? What difference does it make to anyone?"
He added that he was being flippant. "I bought her coffee, and I'm driving her around."
Russell said when she receives a complaint about a permit abuse -- often from another disabled driver, a concerned citizen or a city commissionaire -- the SMD issues a letter to the holder of the permit asking what happened. Typically, permit holders are completely unaware the pass is being misused and are offended when they learn, she said.
If her office doesn't get a response, the disabled driver's file is flagged and staff sits him or her down for a one-on-one chat about responsibility before renewing the pass.
The SMD receives a response to about 80 per cent of its requests for explanation.
Most of the other permit misuses are by family members who don't return the permit after the holder dies.
The SMD gives printed notices to those with disabled parking permits to put on the windshields of cars parked in disabled stalls but not displaying the blue disabled passes. The notes tell the drivers they are parked illegally.
Despite the apparent prevalence of disabled parking permit misuses, Russell insists Winnipeg is one of most successful cities in Canada at controlling abuse.
"I think we have a pretty good handle on it compared to other jurisdictions in Canada," she said. "Other cities ask us how we keep it so low."
Whatever SMD does to monitor the use of permits, it seems some drivers will come up with an apparently endless list of excuses for parking illegally in disabled spots.
Last Thursday, a red Ford Contour peeled into a disabled parking spot at Grant Park Shopping Centre. An agile-looking man in his 20s hopped out and dashed into the Liquor Mart. His wife and baby sat in the back seat.
"The thing is, this parking lot is half empty. If it was busy, I'd park somewhere else," he said. "I also left my wife in the car; if someone actually needed (the spot), she could have moved it."
paul.gackle@freepress.mb.ca
selena.hinds@freepress.mb.ca
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