Could at least $14 million in donations for a new hospital tower be revoked from the Richmond community?
That’s the question the Richmond News posed to the Richmond Hospital Foundation after MLA Teresa Wat told Health Minister Adrian Dix in a committee meeting last week that more than half of the donations made to the foundation for a new acute care tower have been given on the condition that construction begins in 2020.
“It’s probably not a discussion we want to get into,” said Jon Hicke, the foundation’s spokesperson. “We remain hopeful, it’s just not something we feel comfortable talking about at this point.”
To date, the foundation has raised about $27 million, of which more than half is tied to shovels in the ground by 2020, confirmed Hicke.
When asked why this was made known now and not before the May 9 election, when B.C.’s two major political parties were vying for votes in Richmond with the hospital as a major sticking point, Hicke said “we were waiting for a provincial government commitment.”
The condition may present a hurdle to the project since Vancouver Coastal Health and the foundation agreed $40 million in donations would go toward what is expected to be a $283 million project.
Over the course of the 15-year BC Liberal rein, hospital infrastructure projects have increasingly depended on the private sector or regional support.
And even an expedited timeline in Richmond could cut things close.
Liberal Wat said in April the government had expedited the concept plan this year in order to potentially commence the business plan this fall. The business plan could take up to 18 months, said Wat at the time.
If that’s the case, a business plan would conclude well into 2019 at the earliest, thus putting a very tight timeline on a 2020 construction start date.
Dix told Wat that, based on the Liberal track record, his NDP government would deliver a faster hospital than what the Liberals would have. But no fixed dates have been announced.
Dix cited a stalled hospital project in Dawson Creek as an example. According to the Dawson Creek Mirror, the mayor of Dawson Creek said in January Liberals had “left voters with the impression the expansion would be complete by 2017.”
To date, construction has yet to begin.
Regardless, Wat noted, Dix has not specified a timeline for Richmond Hospital in his four months on the job.
