The Okanagan Similkameen Regional Hospital District will see a 14.75 per cent hike amid rising interest rates and request for new projects.
The average residential property, estimated at $666,000, would see a tax requisition of $138 compared to the 2024's average property of $673,000 seeing a requisiton of $123.91, the board was informed on Jan. 23.
The hospital district, which is made up of directors from the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen and covers the same territory, borrowed $68 million from the Municipal Finance Authority in 2020 to fund its portion of costs for the Penticton Regional Hospital expansion.
At the time the loan was taken out, it had an interest rate of 1.99 per cent, which after five years is being reset to an estimated 4.44 per cent after their next annual payment in April based on changes and the general market.
That will drive up future annual payments from about $3.49 million, with $2.12 million in paying off the loan and $1.36 million in covering interest, up to $4.7 million with interest payments at $2.5 million.
On top of the increased interest and debt payments for projects already underway or approved in previous years, Interior Health proposed several new projects in their funding request of $3,984,400.
One of the items was removed from 2024's budget and IH's projects for the year, which is a replacement project for distribution piping and outlets in Penticton Regional Hospital for medical, oxygen and vacuum. The Central Pavilion's piping and outlets were originally constructed in 1952, and the South Pavilion was built in 1969.
The request from IH was for $1,682,700, or 40 per cent of the total $4,206,700 project cost.
Director Doug Holmes questions whether some requests such as funding for a bus for the McKinney Place long-term care facility in Oliver are outside of the district's mandate.
Director Sue McKortoff pointed out the RDOS had provided some funding for Desert Sun Counselling to purchase a bus, and put forward the possibility of sharing that instead of purchasing something wholly new.
Further questions and concerns about issues with lab services in communities like Keremeos, inflexible rural attachment requirements for doctors and nurse practitioners and overall asset management of IH's infrastructure.
Chair and Director Martin Johansen noted that the district had several years of one per cent or zero per cent increases that had left the current board in a position of having to face much higher increases in 2025 and the future.
The directors voted to move forward with a more limited 30 per cent funding for IH's requests instead of 40 per cent, with pulls from the district's reserves in 2025 and 2026 to keep the tax rate increase at just below 15 per cent.
The board also voted to send a letter to the Minister of Health, with a promise of providing the OSRHD's financials, calling on the province to make up the funding gap with proof residents can't take even higher taxes.
The vote gave first two readings to the funding bylaw, which will need to return at a future date for approval.
