WAKE UP NANAIMO: $150 Million for a Promise?
Nanaimo taxpayers need to wake up.
The Hospital District Board — which includes Nanaimo city councillors — has decided to hammer today’s taxpayers to build a massive reserve for hospital projects that may benefit the region for decades.
That is the first problem.
If this is a multi-generational project, why is this generation being forced to prepay so much of the bill up front?
Long-term capital projects are often financed over the long haul because the benefits stretch over the long haul. That is basic fairness. Future residents will use the tower. Future residents will use the cath lab. Future residents will benefit from expanded hospital services.
So why are today’s taxpayers being squeezed now?
Saving Interest — Or Shifting the Burden?
The Board says it is saving interest.
But saving interest for the Board does not mean saving money for taxpayers.
Many taxpayers are already carrying mortgages, credit cards, lines of credit, rent increases, insurance hikes, grocery inflation, and rising city taxes. If government avoids borrowing by forcing taxpayers to pay more now, the interest burden has not disappeared.
It has been shifted.
From government books to household budgets.
Is This a Lockbox — Or a Slush Fund?
Now we are looking at a reserve approaching $150 million — collected under the emotional banner of a hospital tower and cath lab, while the money may apparently be used more broadly for hospital projects, including long-term care, a cancer-centre parkade, and “other hospital projects.”
That raises the blunt question:
Is this a protected hospital lockbox — or a slush fund with better branding?
Don’t like the term “slush fund”?
Then show taxpayers the cap.
Show the project-specific lockbox.
Show the legal guarantee.
Show the binding provincial construction approval.
Show the timeline.
Show the interest earned.
Show what happens if Victoria delays, redesigns, scales back, or walks away.
A Promise Is Not a Project
Right now, taxpayers are being asked to hand over massive sums based on a provincial government promise from a government already drowning in red ink, with no clear plan to return to balanced budgets and no final construction guarantee for the most advertised projects.
That is not good enough.
A campaign promise is not a construction contract.
A concept plan is not a hospital tower.
A business plan is not a cath lab.
And hope is not financial stewardship.
This Is Not Anti-Hospital
This is not about opposing better health care.
Nanaimo needs better health care.
Nanaimo needs expanded hospital capacity.
Nanaimo needs a cath lab.
But taxpayers also need competent government.
They need hard limits, hard answers, and hard proof before elected officials help themselves to another huge bite from the public wallet.
Election-Year Question
This year, when candidates come asking for your vote, ask them this:
Did you support hammering today’s taxpayers to build an apparently uncapped hospital reserve before the tower and cath lab were fully approved for construction?
And then ask the follow-up:
If this is not a slush fund, where is the cap and where is the lockbox?
Nearly $150 million from taxpayers deserves more than “trust us.”
It deserves proof.
Board Chair Janice Perrino will be invited to a public debate/discussion to explain why her board has made this decision.
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