The West Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital District held their biggest meeting of the year on Wednesday. Chair Aimee Watson is pleased with how the 2019 budget looks.
“The overall increase to the hospital board budget is only three per cent including all of the stuff that we’re doing this year, in terms of what Interior Health’s requests was to us, with finances going into our reserves as well. So we’re in a healthy position.”
In total, $600,000 will be going into reserves this year. She says right now there’s a good pace of requested capital upgrades, but if the Ministry decides to do a lot at once, they could fall behind. The board also approved the bylaw for the over $15-million contribution for the next two phases of upgrades at the Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail for ambulatory care and the pharmacy expansion.
Watson explains it doesn’t have to be paid right now.
“We approved the bylaw, but the project itself, construction wise, is a phased approach. So while it’s 2019 the money is asked for and we’ve approved the bylaw, the money doesn’t actually come out of our account right away. So it will be a mix of reserves, a mix of borrowing, depending when IH construction moves forward.”
She says the board was happy to approve their contribution as they’ve been lobbying for the the project. IHÂ is expected to present more details on the architectural design at their June meeting.
