The County of Essex is planning on saving up $50-million by 2027 to help pay for the proposed new mega-hospital for the region.
However, the county may have to go into debt to pay for the rest of its share, which is estimated at a total of $90-million by Treasurer Rob Maisonville.
He plans on including $760,000 towards the new hospital in the county's 2016 budget and at least $450,000 a year for the next ten years after that.
"Moving forward at a minimal amount, at about 0.5% of a levy, in 2027 we'll have about $50-million conservatively. We still have to pay, in ten years, $90-million," says Maisonville. "So there's a gap."
Maisonville says the municipal share of the $2-billion project is $200-million and estimated the county's portion based on the population split with Windsor.
"We don't want to issue debt," says Maisonville. "The reality is $90-million is a lot of money for the County of Essex and it may come to pass that a portion of that $90-million if it is due in 2027 — if that hospital is built in 2027 — there may be a debt component," says Maisonville.
If the new hospital doesn't end up getting built, Maisonville says some of the money being raised to pay for it is already committed.
"The angioplasty project with Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare — we've had discussions and if the new hospital doesn't go through, [Hotel-Dieu] still needs to do that program, so those dollars are still earmarked for that purpose," says Maisonville.
County council unanimously approved the plan on Wednesday night, which will also see money moved into the reserve account for the new hospital each year if savings are found elsewhere.
The county's 2015 budget included $340,000 towards the proposed new regional hospital.