The Hospital Bite Is Real.
The Fiscal Mismanagement Is Worse.
Interest First. Taxpayers Second.
This hospital story does not start with the hospital. It starts with bad fiscal management.
Back in November 2022, B.C. was reporting a $5.7 billion operating surplus. Budget 2026 now targets a $13.309 billion deficit for 2026/27. That is not prudent management. That is a government blowing through its room to manoeuvre and leaving taxpayers to clean up the mess.
Now look at the bill for those past decisions. B.C. projects $5.039 billion in debt-servicing costs this year. That is about $13.8 million a day in interest. Nanaimo’s entire hospital district levy for 2026 is $49.5 million. In other words, Victoria burns through the equivalent of Nanaimo’s full hospital levy in about 3.6 days just paying interest on debt. That should make people furious. Interest should not be eating money that could help fund real projects.
Then there is the way this 21 per cent increase gets heard. The $63.96 per $100,000 figure is the full 2026 hospital tax rate, not the increase by itself. The actual increase is about $11.10 per $100,000 over last year’s equivalent rate. On a typical Nanaimo single-family home assessed at $769,000, that works out to about $492 total for 2026, with the one-year increase being about $85, not another four hundred dollars on top. The increase is real. The public just deserves the math straight.
And that brings us to the real point. Government can keep borrowing, rolling debt, and hiking taxes long after ordinary households hit the wall. The Province can spend forever. Taxpayers cannot. If Victoria had managed the books like adults, less money would be vanishing into interest, and less pressure would be dumped onto local property owners now.
The local taxpayer is responsible for 40% of the capital costs of the new hospital. Sibce the mid 1970’s when the hospital opened ot a single bed has been added to the 370 or so. If you want to know bad it is, search Faircare Alliance, a local advocacy group. By the time the dust settles and we have a new hospital - it takes a decade before it is fully operative, the cost for local taxpayers will be $1 billion plus. Do not complain about tax increases for NRGH they are needed.
ReplyDeleteAs for the other tax hikes - we have to elect a right of center council. Enough of this progressive crap.