The provincial government has no stated policy governing what will happen if northern Manitoba fails to raise its share of funding for Flin Flon’s new emergency room, The Reminder has learned.
Instead, “any issues would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis,” a
provincial spokesperson said.
The province has mandated that private fundraising across the region pay for 10 or 20 per cent of the estimated $22-million price tag of the new ER, set to start construction next year.
A fundraising shortfall would not impact whether the ER gets built. If fundraising cannot generate 10 per cent of the cost prior to construction, then the region has 10 years to come up with 20 per cent of the tab.
The same policy has since 1998 applied to most large health-care capital projects across Manitoba, but the new ER marks Flin Flon’s first involvement.
The provincial spokesperson said three other post-1998 capital projects in Flin Flon – the Primary Health Care Centre, the hospital-based clinic and the ambulance station – did not come under the policy.
The policy only applies to health-care developments that cost more than $1.5 million, the spokesperson said, and neither the Primary Health Care Centre nor the clinic carried that high of a price tag.
As well, ambulance stations are specifically excluded from the fundraising contribution requirement, the spokesperson said.
The Progressive Conservative government unveiled the current fundraising prerequisite in 1998. Around that time, at least one NDP MLA, Rosann Wowchuk, worried the rule would put “tremendous” pressure on Winnipegosis to fund hospital renovations.
But upon taking office in 1999, the NDP adopted the policy as its own, defending it as a means of ensuring communities get to “have a say and be involved” in such projects.
Fundraising has never failed to generate its share of a facility, the spokesperson said, and only rarely has fundraising had to go beyond the 10 per cent mark.
But some residents worry that with northern Manitoba being the poorest region in the province, Flin Flon may become the first community unable to meet its obligation.
Of the provinces that have fundraising requirements for health-care projects, Manitoba charges the lowest percentage, the spokesperson said.
