Prince George Coun. Brian Skakun was taken by surprise by Thursday’s announcement that the province has approved a business plan to build a $1.579 billion patient care tower at UHNBC.
The plan will obligate taxpayers in the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George to cover $365 million of the cost of building of the hospital project.
But according to Skakun, who also sits on the regional district board, the board has not approved that funding in a public vote, as is required, and that vote won’t happen until Sept. 12.
“We are not authorized to enter any agreement with the province on any financial matters or anybody when there is a loan authorization bylaw that has to be voted on in public,” said Skakun, who contacted the Citizen Friday morning.
“This deal is not binding. It’s a political PR thing that isn’t binding. I would hope that (health minister) Adrian Dix knows that we haven’t voted on this in public and it’s not a done deal. He doesn’t have the money yet. We will vote on this in September at an open meeting."
Mackenzie Mayor Joan Atkinson, chair of the RDFFG, says Skakun is not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of the regional district and said Dix’s announcement of the funding agreement was approved by 12 of 14 board members at an in-camera meeting.
“We have agreed to this funding contribution with the province of British Columbia, the Northern Health Authority and regional hospital district,” said Atkinson. “Because we are in negotiations we’ve had constant meetings and most of them were held in-camera, so the process is following the announcement that was made (Thursday).
“We are legislatively required to pass a capital funding bylaw in September. It’s a process to complete what we have accomplished. We want this to happen.”
To come up with $365 million, which represents about 22 per cent of the patient tower project cost, Skakun said the RDFFG will be required to take out a 30-year loan. Prince George taxpayers make up nearly three-quarters of the regional district population and will be paying 70 per cent of that cost.
“We’ve had no discussion with any groups in town,” said Skakun. “The only discussion has been with the province and Northern Health. People in town wouldn’t be able to digest this massive tax increase coming, it’s mind-boggling.
“We’ll have to borrow the money, so there’s going to be debt servicing costs. There’s going to be a number of things that will come out at the September public meeting. But we’ve already written and agreed with the province that they’re going to get the money.”
Unlike municipalities, regional districts of B.C. are not bound to follow the alternate approval process which requires 10 per cent of eligible voters to sign and submit forms that indicate opposition to a government spending initiative.
“So there’s basically no public disclosure on any of this until after the fact,” said Skakun. There’s no transparency with this regional district process. There’s been no pushback at all with the hospital tax.”
Skakun said the provincial health ministry should have waited until the results of that vote before it announced the commitment of regional district funding. He said the plan was rushed to get it to the province before the fall election, which wasn't necessary. "We didn’t have to rush this," Skakun said.
When Dix first announced the new surgical tower was coming to UHNBC in September 2020, the cost was estimated at between $500 million and $700 million, but inflation and supply chain shortages during the pandemic spiked prices of construction materials and the projected cost has since more than doubled.
Regional hospital districts typically provide 40 per cent of the cost of capital projects and after the Okanagan Regional District opened new operating rooms last year while covering just 20 per cent of the cost the RDFFG dug in with its demand for a similar reduction from the province in its cost-sharing agreement for the new patient tower.
“We’re supposed to contribute 40 per cent and we went into the discussion saying that’s a no-go, we don’t have the money, so we’ve got it down below 22 per cent,” said Atkinson. “We are confident by the time we start construction of the hospital our contribution is probably going to be below 20 per cent, which makes it 'why wouldn’t we?'
“We all know we need this and we had some difficult conversations but we came to this agreement. We have locked in that number, $365 million, and if costs escalate, we know they’re not going to shrink, we are still locked in at that $365 million. We wanted this agreement done so no matter what that acute care tower costs, this is going to be our contribution.”
The new tower, which will include expanded and enhanced cardiac, surgical and mental health/addictions treatment, will replace the original acute care facility built in 1958. Atkinson said the project has been talked about for more than 15 years and said the regional district has been building up a reserve fund it will use to pay down the cost.
Construction of the new tower won’t begin until the fall of 2026, with a completion date set for 2031.
Skakun has been part of regional district meetings about the new tower for at least 18 months. He’s well aware of the problems Northern Health is facing with health-care staff shortages that have forced hospital emergency rooms in Fort St. John, Kitimat, Vanderhoof and Fort St. James to shut down their night shifts.
With no relief in sight to the current staffing problems and an aging patient population, Skakun worries about the situation becoming even more dire in seven years when construction of the 11-floor hospital tower is complete.
“Right now we have about half of our operating rooms (at UHNBC) running, and Northern Health will confirm that,” said Skakun. “Where is the recruitment and retention program that is going to get the healthcare professionals for this tower? Where are they going to stay in Prince George and how are we going to keep them here?
“I have not been able to get a clear answer on that. We’re getting (five) new operating rooms and we won’t have the personnel to run them.”
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