Jonathan Fowlie
Sun
Renovating St. Paul’s Hospital on its present site is more likely than moving it, Health Minister Kevin Falcon says. Photograph by: Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun
The B.C. government has paid about $4.8 million in municipal taxes to hold a property once envisioned as the future site of St. Paul’s Hospital.
Since 2004, B.C. has paid about $800,000 each year in property taxes on behalf of the Vancouver Esperanza Society — a private organization of high-profile supporters of Providence Health Care.
Providence Health Care, which runs St. Paul’s, has long discussed a proposal to build a replacement hospital on the False Creek site.
The Vancouver Esperanza Society purchased land near Main and Terminal streets in 2004 to support that plan, and the province has paid property taxes on the group’s behalf ever since to help it maintain control of the land.
Providence spokesman Shaf Hussain said the group is a non-profit society that is completely independent from the hospital.
Directors of the society are listed as: Susan House; Hugh Magee, a director of both Cambie Surgical Corp. and Canadian Diagnostic Centres; and John Woodward, brother of Vancouver Coastal Health chair Kip Woodward.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said Providence has a formal agreement with the society giving the hospital the right to use the land, and full say about any potential sale.
On Wednesday, however, Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon said Providence is now leaning away from moving to the new site and toward renovating and expanding the hospital’s aging Burrard Street location.
“I am compelled, and it’s entirely in alignment with my bias, to be honest with you, that investing in the existing St. Paul’s Hospital is probably the best way to go for us,” said Falcon.
Falcon said Providence has not yet submitted a business case for expansion, and so no final decisions have been made.
Regardless of what decision is made, Falcon said the almost $5 million spent so far by the province to maintain the False Creek land will not have gone to waste if St. Paul’s opts not to move.
“We still think there could be a future for health care investment on those lands, and so we are definitely going to keep those available,” he said.
“I don’t know what that future may be, but it’s something we want to keep that option open, because it’s pretty hard anywhere in Vancouver to find a piece of land of that size that you can preserve and utilize for future investment.”
Spencer Chandra Herbert, the New Democratic Party MLA whose constituency includes St. Paul’s, said Wednesday the money spent on the False Creek site has been a waste.
“Since 2002, it’s been acknowledged that we need to revitalize St. Paul’s Hospital,” he said.
“Here we are, eight years and nothing has happened aside from spending nearly $5 million on an empty lot,” he added.
“I think had the B.C. Liberals followed what the community said right from the beginning we wouldn’t have had to throw that money away.”
On Wednesday, Falcon said any decisions on renewal are not expected to go ahead until after a review that is being done throughout the Lower Mainland on future priorities.
“We’re still doing a larger review of all the capital requirements in health throughout the Lower Mainland,” he said.
“We’re actually looking at all the different [financial requests] and trying to project ahead, where is the population growth? What is the changing needs of our population? What are going to be the different rates of disease in the different population groups? How’s the aging demographic going to affect the kind of care we deliver? — all those things are being factored into a broader look that we’re doing.”
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