Taxes for the hospital are going down this year.
With a $28.5 million budget for 2017, the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District has approved an estimated tax rate of $74 per $100,000 of assessed property value.
That’s a decrease over last year’s rate of $81 and 2015’s $84 rate.
The rate reflects the hospital board’s strategy of a gradual tax increase over the last six years in order to borrow less money and shorten the borrowing period to build new hospitals in Campbell River and the Comox Valley.
Based on this debt management strategy, the hospital board expects to pay off the debt in 10 years.
Charlie Cornfield, chair of the regional hospital board, said the board – which is made up of directors from both the Comox Valley and Strathcona regional districts – is pleased with the direction it continues to follow.
"The new state-of-the-art hospitals are officially opening this fall,” Cornfield said. “We are so excited to have provided 40 per cent funding towards the North Island Hospitals project in order to continue providing first class service to residents for many years to come.”
In addition to providing 40 per cent of capital funding for the new hospitals, the hospital board also earmarked $1.85 million for new capital projects and equipment in the existing Campbell River and Comox Valley hospitals, and in other facilities that the hospital district supports.
The hospital district provides capital funding, cost shared with the provincial government on a 60/40 basis, with the hospital district portion being 40 per cent. The facilities that the Comox Strathcona Hospital District funds are: Campbell River and District General Hospital, St. Joseph’s General Hospital, Cumberland Regional Hospital Laundry Society, Gold River Health Clinic, Sayward Primary Health Centre and the health centres on Cortes, and in Kyuquot, Tahsis and Zeballos.
Property owners pay a portion of their annual taxes to the hospital district to help fund those institutions. The tax is collected by the City of Campbell River, along with taxes for the school district and the Strathcona Regional District.
For more information on the Comox Strathcona Regional Hospital District visit, csrhd.ca