The community will need to raise millions of dollars for equipment and furnishings once the go ahead is given for the new hospital in Prince Albert. (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

community fundraising

Community will need to raise millions of dollars for new hospital equipment

Aug 20, 2019 | 4:56 PM

The Victoria Hospital Foundation (VHF) says there’s little the public can do at the moment to prepare for the millions of dollars that will be needed to equip and furnish a new hospital in Prince Albert.

But the organization says it has been getting ready, and an approach to city council for a special tax levy for residents is not out of the question. The mayor though said that would be a last resort.

The province has already committed to waiving the usual requirement for a community to finance 20 per cent of the cost of the construction of a major capital project such as a new hospital. The scope and timeline for a project that is likely to cost in excess of $100 million is still unknown but there will still be a very large fundraising effort required to pay for additional equipment, furnishings and equipment at the new facility. The province does not cover these costs.

“Once we have an idea of what this project will entail we’ll ask our partners with the Saskatchewan Health Authority to reach out to the community and our Foundation partners in Prince Albert to discuss the best way to fundraise for that equipment and what type of equipment is going in,” Brad Williams, Director of Infrastructure with the Ministry of Health, told paNOW.

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He said as every hospital was different with different needs it would be premature to talk about what sort of new equipment costs there would be for P.A. as the scope of any new services had yet to be determined. As an example though, a top line magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) can cost around $3 million.

Sherry Buckler, the CEO of the VHF said there was an expectation that all levels of health care would be improved and enhanced at the new site in areas such as pediatrics, diagnostics and lab work and the hospital would be an ever-increasingly important centre for P.A., the region, and the North.

“It will be in the millions [of dollars]; it will be significant,” she said when asked about the size of the forthcoming fundraising efforts. “Let’s be honest, it’s going to be a big exercise for the North in solidarity. We predict the fundraising campaign will span a huge geographical area and we’ll engage with regional municipalities, municipal governments, individual and corporate donors and service clubs, all stakeholders.”

Could a tax levy be introduced

paNOW asked if the Foundation would explore with city council a special levy on taxpayers as has occurred with other large projects in the city in the past.

“That’s absolutely an option and I believe city council would sit down with us and definitely be willing to discuss that with us,” she said.

Buckler explained the VHF had been internally readying itself the last two years with some operational procedures for when the fundraising efforts kick in and to “get ready for something so big like that. We’re just waiting for the announcement like everyone else is.”

Meanwhile, Prince Albert mayor Greg Dionne said tax levies had been used in the past but for this venture he said he was looking at putting a community group together to seek donations from across the entire region and beyond.

He pointed to the success of the wide reach for fundraising for the soon-to-open Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation in Saskatoon.

Reaching far and wide for donations

“They just got another big donation from a resident of P.A., so I’ve been keeping a list of those [donors] and I’ve talked to those, and they’re ready to step forward for the new hospital here,” he said. “We’ve had people from every corner of the province donate to the children’s hospital… and I’m going to do the same thing for when we’re building our hospital.”

While the total scope of the funding ask isn’t yet known, Dionne suggested the final figure for equipment and furnishings could be very big.

“If we have to raise $15 million or $20 million, let’s see if we can privately raise $10 million and then maybe we only have to levy for $5 million,” he said. But he stressed going to a levy would be a last resort.

“Let’s see what we can raise privately first,” he said.

On the more immediate front, Buckler noted the much-needed new neo-natal unit at the hospital could not wait the “six, seven or eight years by the time a new hospital is done” and the Foundation was awaiting imminent approval from the health minister to get that work underway. The community raised in excess of $2 million for the project.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow