File photo

By Michael Reeve

RIH UPGRADES

Province, not local taxpayers, picking up the tab on Royal Inland Hospital cost overruns

Jun 20, 2024 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Thompson Regional Hospital District taxpayers will not be on the hook for cost overruns in the Royal Inland Hospital emergency room after the Ministry of Health stepped up to cover the missing $16 million.

“Our board was very firm in our position that we should not be paying for the cost overruns on a project that we approved five years before,” said Hospital District Board Chair Mike O’Reilly. “That went back through Interior Health and back to the ministry and at the end of the day the project needs to be done, but it shouldn’t born by the local taxpayers of the Thompson Regional Hospital District.”

The gap was created in March, when the hospital board voted against funding the overruns.

“We went back and worked with the ministry and provincially they are going to cover the $40 million needed to stay within the plans we originally came up with and move forward with those plans,” said Todd Mastel, Corporate Director Business Operations for Interior Health.

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There was concern that the board not covering its share of the cost overruns would result in the scope of the project changing or possibly the need to phase in equipment. That, however, will not be an issue with provincial help arriving.

“We are sticking with the same scope, and we are able to keep all the items in it,” confirmed Mastel. “We are still working on a completion of fall 2026 on the project, so we are staying on time and within the same scope.”

One of the chief complaints related to the overrun was the lack of communication between the health authority and board, something which has been promised to improve with the cancer care clinic project on the horizon.

“Now we are seeing the fruits of our labour of signing that MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), because it did take a long time,” said O’Reilly. “And these are the benefits of that, the updates on the projects, the updates on the funding that we approved four or five years ago… where are those projects at? It’s good for the board to be aware but it’s also good for the residents to be aware of what has happened in their areas, where their tax dollars are actually being spent.”

Interior Health does expect to provide a update on the $359-million Kamloops cancer centre price tag this summer.