As part of 2024 budget deliberations, Hamilton city councillors voted unanimously to remove a $12 million (one per cent) tax increase meant to raise funds for a major local hospital redevelopment. Photo Credit: City of Hamilton.
As part of 2024 budget deliberations, Hamilton city councillors voted unanimously to remove a $12 million (one per cent) tax increase meant to raise funds for a major local hospital redevelopment.
Hamilton’s Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Charlton Campus are set to see a combined $3.7 billion in upgrades in the coming years.
Hospital executives are hoping that the City of Hamilton will ultimately contribute $462 million towards the massive project.
The Government of Ontario is expected to fund 90 per cent of the total $3.7 billion construction cost, with the remaining amount meant to be raised locally.
Other costs, such as equipment, are also expected to be funded locally.
Donors are projected to contribute about 25 per cent of the remaining amount, which leaves that remaining $462 million currently unfunded.
As such, as part of the City of Hamilton’s 2024 proposed Tax Operating and Capital Budget city staff proposed a one per cent ($12 million) tax increase to raise funds for a “municipal investment” in the planned hospital redevelopment.
The increase would work out to an extra tax burden in 2024 of about $50 for the average household.
But a motion brought forward during Council’s budget deliberations sought to remove that one per cent tax increase from the 2024 budget in order to reduce the burden on Hamilton residents.
The motion was brought forward by Councillor Mike Spadafora (Ward 14 – West Mountain) and seconded by Councillor Tom Jackson (Ward 6 – East Mountain).
It was passed 15-0 by Council.
In comments addressing his motion, Spadafora said that he is not comfortable collecting money for the development through municipal taxes until the $462 million request is reduced.
“This is in no way stating that we don’t believe a hospital redevelopment is important in our city,” he added.
“I cannot support the $462 million and I think when we get to an area where we have a number that as a council and as a city we feel we can support then I think we can start having those discussions.”
“It doesn’t seem like the right time and definitely $462 million is not the right number,” he concluded.
Jackson expressed similar comments, saying that the $462 million was “absolutely an unfair ask of our municipality and beyond what I felt was my fiscal responsibility as a municipal councillor.”
Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) issued a joint statement following Council’s decision.
The organizations said, “Renewal of our aging hospital facilities will not occur without the City of Hamilton as an essential funding partner.”
Nevertheless, both HHS and SJHH say they are committed to working with the city in the coming year “to enable this critical investment in our health care infrastructure.”
Construction on the $2.3 billion Juravinski Hospital redevelopment is projected to start in 2028.
It is unclear when the work on St. Joseph’s Charlton Campus would begin.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
