COLUMN: RVH expansion will be eye-opening for taxpayers

When Gail Hunt, president and CEO of the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH), recently updated Innisfil council on the expected municipal financial contribution to the facility’s expansion into that town, she stressed she wasn’t “trying to scare” them.

The same way your doctor says “this won’t hurt a bit” before they plunge the needle into your arm.

The future RVH south campus in Innisfil is expected to cost about $700 million. Officially, the province requires a “local component” of 10 per cent of funding.

Hunt pointed out the real figure is often closer to 30 per cent, because many costs are not picked up by the province. That means the local contribution could be between $70 million and $210 million.

And that’s just for the south campus.

There’s also a massive expansion of the current Georgian Drive location in Barrie that will get underway first. That is expected to cost $2.3 billion.

So the total cost will be about $3 billion with the local contribution from Barrie, Simcoe County and perhaps Muskoka Region being at least $300 million and, in today’s world of rapidly rising construction costs, likely more.

Based on that 30 per cent estimate, the amount could be closer to a billion dollars.

Some of that money will be raised by local groups, everyone from the hard-working hospital auxiliary to local service clubs, through events such as the annual Boots and Hearts Barn Burner hockey game and myriad golf tournaments.

Area residents have shown themselves to be incredibly generous of their time and money when it comes to the RVH, as they should.

But the bulk of the money will come from property taxpayers.

How much? We don’t know yet. We weren’t told during my time on City of Barrie council.

First the facts. The expansion that got underway in 2009 cost $450 million. Barrie, through local taxpayers, kicked in $52.5 million.

Now the speculation. This expansion will cost six times as much. Do the math. Barrie could be asked to contribute more than $300 million.

I can’t imagine that is a realistic number. It’s almost as much as Barrie’s entire 2023 capital budget, which covers roads, parks, buildings and vehicles. It’s not far below the city’s entire 2023 operating budget, which includes the cost of salaries for everyone from librarians to the Zamboni driver at the arena, along with the cost of keeping the lights on in multiple city facilities. It’s almost five times what the city spends on police each year.

Forget about holding the line on property taxes. Even spread over 10 years, a $300-million contribution would add $30 million to the tax bill each year, about a 10 per cent annual tax increase.

A more realistic contribution of “only” $100 million would still be about a three per cent increase each year.

All or some of the money could come from the Alectra dividend, funds the city receives from its share of ownership in that electric utility, much of which now goes into the city’s reinvestment reserve. But then there would be much less money for many community projects, including new infrastructure.

One solution to avoiding an actual tax increase would be to put the amount for the RVH as a separate line on tax bills. For example, your 2025 property tax bill would be $6,000, along with a new $300 “RVH fee.”

I often wish the councils I was on had done that, since almost the entire property tax increase for a decade in Barrie went to RVH and few people seemed to realize it.

On the other hand, I haven’t met many people who spend a lot of time thinking about why they are paying more. They only care about the amount.

Barry Ward is a veteran editor and journalist who also served on Barrie city council for 22 years. His column appears regularly on BarrieToday.