To get our new, larger hospital by 2014, Oakville’s hospital needs $530 million as the “Local Share”. The Hospital has asked Town Council for about $200 million from the Town’s revenues to complete the Local Share.
The Local Share determines the equipment we’ll have for CAT scans, etc. The Province pays only for eligible building costs.
Without the $200 million, they say our community’s new 457 bed hospital with a new cancer treatment clinic and increased diagnostic equipment (MRI and CAT scanners, etc.) would need to be scaled back. They say a delay of years would result, in which other communities would take our place in the Province’s queue for funding new hospitals.
Our community already has public assets (roads, community centres, etc) worth over $1 billion on the Town’s books that we’ve built up over the last 30 years or so. The new hospital would be another asset for the community on the Hospital’s books whose total cost, I estimate, would be about $1.5 billion, and almost $1 billion comes from the Province.
If we give $200 million, I estimate the average home’s share would be about $15 a year per $100,000 of assessed valuation, over 30 years, beginning in 2015. In 2044, the hospital charge would end.
The $5 to $6 million a year that our payments would start out at would still leave borrowing room if we need it for other uses before hitting our 2015 ceiling of about $14 million per year for tax-supported debt.
- Oakville Mayor Rob Burton
This article is part of the ongoing coverage by Oakville.com of the “$200 million question”. We have received several submissions from community leaders and members of the public and will share them here in the coming weeks.
Please make a comment on this article.
For more information from the Town of Oakville:
- Read key questions and answers about the new hospital
- Read the January 26, 2010, news release
- Complete the online survey
- Register for the public meeting on February 11, 2010
For more information about the new Oakville hospital, please visit www.newoakvillehospital.ca
About the author: Mayor Rob Burton
Oakville Mayor, retired YTV GM/founder, MS Columbia University '71, husband of Wendy, dad of Rachel, Sarah & Robbie, cookieman of Tessa the friendly Airedale
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Mayor,
Does that mean that if my house assesment is $300,000 then the addition property tax would be $45 per year?
With the size of the existing hospital and the rate at which this town is growing I strongly believe we need to do what it takes to build this new hospital.
Yes, $15 per $100,000 means a $300,000 home would pay $45 a year. In a more “sculpted” or “back end loaded” plan, if we started at $1.50 per $100,000 a year, a $300,000 home would pay $4.50 per year at the start.
If we choose a “back end loaded” payment plan, where payments in the first years are lower than in the later years, the payments in the early years could be as low as $1.50 per $100,000 per year, rising by 2044 to $66. The goal of this approach would be to make the future recipients of the hospital pay more than the present, because the residents of 2045, when the payments end, receive a ‘good as new’ hospital under the “Design Build Finance Maintain” model being used. (Basically, the cost of keeping the hospital up to date over the years is built into the plan).
The decision being asked of us is to promise to support the financing of the hospital. The “how” is not to be decided until a later decision point in 2011 and payments don’t begin until 2015.
Please let me know if you have other questions.
What are the surrounding areas kicking in? They’ll be using the facility too! Should we not be splitting the 200 mill with them?
If we could, would that make us have to contribute to the hospitals that Oakville residents also use, such as Credit Valley and TGH, Sick Kids, etc? So far, no one has figured out a way to charge others and not pay others, too.
I’m excited about the new hopital, but what real value will Oakville residents see from the new hospital for the extra taxes. What services will we receive now which wouldn’t have been received from OT ?
There will be a multitude of feeder clinics and business springing up around the hospital which will see direct benefit. Can’t the town find a way to recoup the money through control of surrounding land permits or even development of surrounding area , or even just higher taxes for those business who see the benefits ? Possibly naming rights to a new wing, or street names ?
My point is the average citizen won’t get any tangible return on investment, but there must be plenty of businesses who do stand to profit.
Thanks
The features, etc. are given by the Hospital here: http://newoakvillehospital.com/Pages/About/fact_sheets.aspx
All recoupments will of course be pursued. “Recoupments” come after outlays, one has to keep in mind.
We in Oakville go to hospitals in other areas: TGH, Trillium, and many more. Charging others who come to Oakville will wind up costing us more, as the others begin to charge us, too. I don’t think we want to make that happen, do we?