Thankfully, city council and local Tory MPPs have finished their protracted transition funding spat. What have we learned? Well, we know that two weeks of endless news releases, scrums, counter-scrums and cute photo-ops made for a great headlines but little progress for Ottawa.

Meanwhile, other critical issues such as the 2001 budget, preparing for the smart growth summit or addressing the capital needs of our local hospitals were basically ignored.

Speaking of our hospitals, you may recall that about a month ago, local hospital CEOs released survey results indicating that 83% of Ottawa residents "strongly support" or "support" local municipal government participation in funding for major capital projects at local hospitals.

While this is heartwarming, it also yields a prescient question. Why have their legitimate capital needs been abandoned by the province?

Five years ago, Ontario created the Health Services Restructuring Commission (HSRC) to close and merge hospitals in the name of efficiency. To be fair, the HSRC was set up as an arms-length body from government to remove, or at least minimize, political interference in these heated and contentious merger/closure debates.

But the HSRC vastly underestimated amalgamation and capital costs for facilities across the province. In some cases, construction costs for new operating rooms were incorrectly and under-estimated using regular office square footage estimates; in others, population growth and demographic changes were underestimated. In the case of Ottawa, both of these errors were made.

In total, the HSRC identified some $2.8 billion in province-wide hospital infrastructure needs. Conservative estimates by various hospitals put this somewhere between $4 billion and $5 billion in work that is necessary over the next decade. The province will pick up 70% of restructuring related costs, leaving local hospitals to find and fund the remaining 30%.

Communities across the province have historically played a role in local hospital fundraising efforts, but 30% of a multi-billion dollar tab is unprecedented. Instead of showing political leadership on this file and owning up to the HSRC's mistakes, the province has downloaded the problem onto municipalities. And apart from a handful of question period zingers at Queen's Park, the official opposition Liberals have raised hardly a whimper of protest in response.


Ottawa area hospitals are short $232 million of a total $600 million capital bill. Collectively, the various hospital foundations will attempt to raise about $112 million privately. This is a monumental undertaking and would be the largest fundraising drive Ottawa has ever seen. Yet, it still leaves another $120 million on the table. Along with their encouraging survey results, the CEOs proposed a 10-year, $40 per household property tax levy. At $12 million a year, one quickly sees where the other $120 million is supposed to come from.

At first glance, $12 million per year on top of Ottawa's $2 billion (capital and operating) budget seems a tad trivial. But many questions should be answered before we walk this road.

In a perfect world, it's easy to say (as some have already) that hospitals are a provincial responsibility, full stop. Yes they are, however, given the fact that both
Mike Harris and Dalton McGuinty have bottom-filed this issue, we need to get back to the real world as opposed to Political Science 101.

This levy proposal has Pandora's box implications. If we support this levy, do we then set a precedent to fund future social services from an already strained property tax base?

To compound matters, city hall really has no mandate to decide this issue. The mayor and most councilors avoided it like the plague during last November's municipal elections. So Ottawa can and should employ Ontario's Direct Democracy Through Municipal Referendums Act, passed last June and hold a referendum on this issue.

A referendum, complete with regulations governing the conduct of both sides, would compel local hospitals to bring all their capital plans forward for public scrutiny and debate. We could also ask if surrounding cities should cough up a portion of the cash since facilities like the Ottawa Hospital and the Regional Cancer Centre serve a catchment area far beyond the city limits. As well, the philosophical issue of hiking property taxes to fund social service capital costs would receive a full airing.

Anti-referendum proponents will argue that a referendum will lead to an emotional and heated debate or media obfuscation. And beware, they may even go so far as stating that voters shouldn't decide such a complex issue. How elitist! A referendum will draw out all sides of the debate, maximize citizen involvement, provide an accurate expression of the popular will and most importantly, ensure an open and transparent the public decision.

The province has dropped the ball on this issue. We should pick it up and petition city council to allow taxpayers to decide via referendum. After all, it is our money, and these are our hospitals.