Taxpayers will likely be asked to dip into their own pockets to pay for capital overruns at Sudbury?s superhospital.
The chair of the operational review steering committee for Sudbury Regional Hospital says Sudburians will likely have to contribute more cash to finish the expansion. Just how much more has yet to be determined.
The review, ordered by the province after capital costs skyrocketed out of control, was designed to find ways to trim the hospital?s $30 million annual operating deficit and find out why costs had escalated so dramatically.
Capital expansion started, but was then halted last year when it was revealed the project to expand the current Laurentian site into a modern-single-site superhospital was more than $70 million over budget.
The price tag for the expansion project was originally pegged at $143 million, but more than $210 million had been spent when construction was halted in November.
Hospital administrators acknowledged an additional $70 million would be needed to complete Phase One of the expansion project before the second phase could begin.
The province promised last winter to look at how every penny was spent and find out what the problems are.
The report was initially supposed to be finalized in June, but has been delayed more than once since as Aube admitted there was a lot more work to be done than he originally expected.
But Aube said the delays were justified as it?s taken a long time to find out why the capital project has so dramatically gone over budget.
It?s all but certain Sudburians will have to come up with more cash to complete the expansion, said Aube.
If you have a $70 million capital deficit and any project is only half completed, the community involved in such a large project is going to have to bear some of the costs, said Aube.
To what extent and how much things will cost is now in the hands of government officials, said Aube.
Final revisions are being made to the report and when completed, the report will be forwarded to the Ministry of Health and Long -Term Care, likely within the next two weeks, said Aube.
Provincial policy is largely to blame in this entire mess as original cost forecasts were ridiculous to begin with, said Gerry Lougheed Jr., who has led a huge community fundraising campaign for hospital expansion.
"We didn?t tell the government what to do, the government told us to do this. If they miscalculated, I think they should be held accountable."
The Heart and Soul had a mandate to raise $17 million for the hospital, Northeastern Ontario Regional Cancer Centre and St. Joseph?s Villa and the final target is within sight.
The fundraising campaign has now raised $13.5 million.