Nearly $100 million hangs in the balance as the deadline for Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) to submit its plans to local municipalities for approval approaches.
This week MAHC said they still plan to submit plans for new hospitals in Huntsville and Bracebridge to the province in November. The new hospital project, pegged at more than $1 billion, will largely be funded by the province but some $225 million must be acquired through a local share.
However, both the District of Muskoka and the Town of Bracebridge said they won’t approve their local contribution unless they can approve the final plan.
“MAHC is continuing our work towards a November submission date to the province of our Stage 1.3 plan,” said MAHC spokesperson Bobbie Clark. “Any municipal decisions regarding local share will be captured in our submission.”
In July, the District of Muskoka council said they will not release their planned $77.4 million contribution toward the local share of the cost to redevelop the Bracebridge and Huntsville hospitals unless it approves the final plan.
Bracebridge councillors subsequently voted to potentially withhold funding for a new hospital and to hire their own consultant to look at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s Capital (MAHC) redevelopment submission to the province.
Bracebridge originally council voted to contribute $10 million to MAHC’s plans to develop two new hospitals in Muskoka. That figure includes the value of contributing a property at 300 Pine Street for the new hospital in Bracebridge.
However, when MAHC’s plan was unveiled earlier this year it met with strong opposition from residents and healthcare workers in south Muskoka, who claimed it would result in significant loss of services for the region.
Earlier this month MAHC announced the formation of working groups to address issues surrounding capacity, transportation and community programming.
“We are confident that our plan prioritizes high-quality patient care for everyone in the 20-plus communities we serve, and we remain committed to ongoing collaboration with patients, staff, local physicians, politicians, and community members,” said Clark. “Our working groups on bed capacity, community partnerships and transportation will continue to address and resolve the issues we heard through our more than 6,000 community member engagements to-date.”
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I think it could be at least another ten years before we see any signs of a new hospital in Huntsville. This thing is moving at a snails 🐌 pace and will be lucky if it ever gets out the planning faze. What a shame 🤨
MAHC’s board has the daunting task of moving forward with Stage 1.3 all the time realising that no new hospital project in Ontario (in the past several decades) has been successfully brought on stream at their original development budgeted costs. This isn’t because of bad management, but unforeseen costs arise and during the construction there are endless ‘change orders’ which are significant additional costs to all healthcare development initiatives. More than likely the total project with land at $1.15B to $1.25B by completion which will require an additional local share in the range of $25M – $50M.
Hopefully this reality has been discussed with all of the funding partners with a strategy on how this probable gross cost escalation will be managed. Good luck to all.