TIMMINS - Eying an expansion and having millions of dollars in equipment needs, the Timmins hospital is looking to the city for cash.
This week, the Timmins and District Hospital Foundation was at the Timmins council meeting to make its $2-million pitch to the municipality. The request will be part of the 2025 budget talks, which start next week.
The Timmins and District Hospital Foundation is amid a $25 million capital campaign. Of that, $8.5 million is for a new emergency room and $16.5 million is to upgrade hospital equipment.
So far, TDH Foundation executive director Jason Laneville said they've secured 31 per cent of the overall goal, which is about $7.75 million.
“We're in silent days. We're not going to be going public until we get the 60 per cent mark,” he told council.
The current facility is 31 years old. The goal is to redevelop the emergency department and add a second level to the kidney care unit to align with it.
When it was built, the emergency department was designed to handle 20,000 visits a year. The hospital currently has closer to 44,000 visits annually, said Laneville.
“Our new emergency department will address poor sight lines, issues with infection control and privacy, just to name a few,” he said.
The total cost of a new emergency department is $80 million to $85 million. The local share is 10 per cent or $8.5 million.
The hospital has started the submission process. The next phase is the one before going to construction or preparing tender documents, TDH president and CEO Kate Fyfe said. That submission should be made in the next month or so.
Having the capital campaign underway ahead of getting the green light from the province is to be proactive, said Laneville.
“We want to be able to hand over a check the minute that the government says that. We want to move forward with this project, and we want to get the shovel in the ground as soon as possible,” he said.
The five council members at Tuesday's meeting are supportive of the project. The councillors in attendance were Andrew Marks, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor Michelle Boileau, Steve Black, John Curley, Lorne Feldman and Bill Gvozdanovic.
The city has supported the hospital in the past and is still making annual payments of $145,000 until 2027 for the specialist building, which currently houses the ophthalmology clinic.
“I think the upgrades that are desired are critical. I think anyone that's visited our emergency room in the past few years understands that," said Black, who supports staff working with the hospital to come up with payment plan to build into the budget.
As a district hospital, councillors also noted that other municipalities should contribute.
“This is for a whole district and I expect the whole district be contributing to this project. Every municipality that's out there should be contributing to this project,” said Curley.
Feldman also noted that healthcare is the purview of the provincial government.
“It's not hope, I'm expecting significant contributions from the provincial government, the federal government, both levels, because you've raised a few concerning notes,” he said.
One of the concerning points Feldman highlighted is that people in the region live four years less than people in the rest of the province, which Fyfe talked about in the presentation.
People in southern Ontario, said Feldman, can drive an hour to get to multiple hospitals.
“We have to drive four hours to get to a bigger, medium-sized hospital,” he said, adding that while he personally supports the campaign the discussion needs to happen at the budget level for transparency.
When someone needs the hospital, Marks said you're looking for equipment that's going to help.
He said that the city has been the facility's partner in the past and is "in your corner".
The City of Timmins budget deliberations are slated to start on Nov. 5.
