The Thompson Regional Hospital District board of directors has approved the 2014 provisional budget.
Total expenditures for 2014 have been budgeted at $18.6 million, which is up approximately $1.5 million from 2013. Included in the 2014 expenditures is partial funding for the Clinical Services Building at Royal Inland Hospital along with provisions for capital projects, minor equipment and carry forward projects.
The 2014 residential tax rate for the TRHD will increase an average of $21 per residential household assessment, up to $127 from $106 in 2013.
The increase in the tax rate is part of a strategy to build up a down-payment towards the construction of RIH’s Clinical Services Building and Parkade, and the Surgical Tower. These two projects are expected to cost approximately $400 million.
The TRHD also approved a bylaw for cost-sharing ($774,356 of $1,935,890) with Interior Health Authority (IHA) for minor equipment in facilities within Kamloops (RIH), Ashcroft, Barriere, Chase, Clearwater, Lillooet, Logan Lake, Lytton and Merritt. Each fall IHA presents a list of minor equipment with which they would like to cost share with the TRHD at 40 per cent.
The boundaries of Thompson Regional Hospital District are similar to but not identical with Thompson-Nicola Regional District, and the hospital district board is essentially the same as the TNRD board.