Sun Rivers residents do not pay the TNRD hospital tax (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

TNRD HOSPITAL TAX

‘Make it fair and equitable’: Kamloops councillor says TNRD hospital tax needs to be collected from Sun Rivers residents

Jun 18, 2021 | 11:45 AM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops city councillor is upset that Sun Rivers residents will continue to not pay their share of the hospital tax within the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

Tk’emlups te Secwepemc rejected the idea of collecting the hospital tax from non-band members.

Mike O’Reilly, who’s also on the TNRD board, feels it’s unfair that residents in Sun Rivers, who are outside of city limits and live within the TNRD, haven’t been contributing to the tax since the community started two decades ago.

“Everybody else in the TNRD actually pays 40 per cent of the cost of the new hospital and new equipment — with the exception of Sun Rivers and Sienna Ridge — and that to me is not a level playing field whatsoever,” said O’Reilly, who’s also a TNRD director. “It’s a bit of an anomaly and we need to find a mechanism and a way that Sun Rivers residents can pay. From talking to the people at Sun Rivers, residents that live over there, they’re more than happy and willing to pay, but there isn’t a mechanism in place to allow that to happen.”

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The taxes collected by the Thompson Regional Hospital District help pay for infrastructure projects like the Clinic Services Building and the soon-to-be Patient Care Tower.

The hospital district hoped Sun Rivers residents would pay starting for the 2021 tax cycle, but Tk’emlups te Secwepemc chief Rosanne Casimir refused.

“They stated that they aren’t ready to do that and be collecting the hospital tax, and they possibly would consider that if they were to look at other tax revenue throughout the entire band lands,” noted O’Reilly. “That was her decision and at least we got a response, and now we can look forward and chart a new path in a way to make it fair and equitable.”

O’Reilly adds that the TNRD has requested a meeting with the provincial government at the next Union of B.C. Municipalities to cover the $250,000 shortfall that would otherwise have to be paid by Kamloops taxpayers.