The chairs of six northern regional hospital districts, including the chair from Fraser-Fort George, sent a letter to BC’s infrastructure minister back in May asking to discuss legislative reform that would ease the tax burden on their residents.
Overlapping with BC’s regional districts are regional hospital districts, which are responsible for collecting taxes from area residents and providing it to the relevant health authority as part of the funding model for health care in the province.
A copy of this letter was attached to the agenda for the Fraser-Fort George Regional Hospital District’s Thursday, July 17 meeting.
It was signed by chair Joan Atkinson as well as the chairs of the North West Regional Hospital District, the Stuart-Nechako Regional Hospital District, the Cariboo-Chilcotin Regional Hospital District, the Peace River Regional Hospital District and the Northern Rockies Regional Hospital District.
The letter thanks Ma for meeting with them on May 8 and notes that compared to other parts of BC, the “the six northern regional hospital districts pay some of the highest requisition rates per average household.:”
“As a result, fairness for taxpayers across the province is in question,” the letter said. “Northern communities are also dealing with industrial closures and cutbacks impacting the tax base and challenges to hospital service level provision due to smaller populations and large geographic areas.”
It goes on to say that the regional hospital district model has become “outdated and increasingly unsustainable” since it was created in 1967 due to rapid increases in technology and the escalation of costs.
It concludes by asking Ma to have her deputy minister schedule a meeting with ministerial staff with the chairs at her earlier convenience.
This push for legislative reform comes after the Fraser-Fort George hospital district passed a motion in 2024 reducing its previous funding level to Northern Health projects in its jurisdiction to 21.625 per cent.
At the July 17 meeting, vice-chair Kyle Sampson (City of Prince George) said there’s work to bring a related item to the next meeting in August on how this work can be advanced for the board’s consideration.
Chief administrative officer Chris Calder said a meeting with assistant deputy ministers will take place in a couple of weeks.
Director Brian Skakun (City of Prince George) said MLAs in the district are aware of the issue and that he hopes it gets raised during the Union of BC Municipalities’ annual general meeting later this year.
At the same meeting, Director Victor Mobley (Salmon River-Lakes) said Northern Health had presented to the board about staffing challenges about a year ago and asked whether staff had heard back on the success of hiring measures.
Calder said the subject had come up in conversation and staff could ask that it be addressed during an upcoming fall meeting that will also see a progress update on the University Hospital of Northern BC acute care tower project and capital spending for next year.
Skakun noted that the provincial government had announced the day before that almost 780 U.S.-based health professionals have expressed interest in coming to BC for work over the past two months.
He said that the district and Northern Health should work together to create a package that will help attract some of these workers to the region, especially with the new hospital tower in the works.
