Th Kootenay East Regional Hospital District approved $28 million in projects for the 2025 fiscal year, largely driven by the approval of the new renal and oncology expansion at the East Kooteany Regional Hospital in Cranbrook.
The Hospital District and the Province cost-share large capital infrastructure projects at 40 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively.
As per the 2025 hospital board five-year financial plan, $23.2 million is due to the new two-storey building for expanded renal and oncology services, while the remainder is going to other projects at EKRH and health care facilities across the East Kootenay that were brought forward by Interior Health on March 14th.
At EKRH, additional approved projects include the replacement of a sewer line and upgrade of the pneumatic controls of building management system, which will replace older heating and cooling controls technology that uses compressed air “signals” with electronic controls. The budget also includes funding for the replacement of a chiller compressor.
In Creston, $1.4 million is going towards building automation upgrades, while further funding is going into elevator modernization at the Swan Valley Lodge.
In Golden, roughly $633,000 is being dedicated to expand primarily care network space in a leased facility.
Other regional health care facilities seeing funding include millwork replacement in the laboratory at Sparwood Primary Health Centre, emergency room overflow renovation at the Elk Valley Hospital in Fernie, helipad resurfacing and sewer lift station upgrade at the Golden and District Hospital and an x-ray room design at the Kimberley Health Centre.
Significant discussion points included an Interior Health request for additional funding for the Golden Primary Care Network space, that included a total $1.58 million increase — $630,000 of which would be funded by the hospital board — on top of $1.85 million that previously approved by the board.
The board approved all proposed projects for the 2025 budget, after initially debating a motion to exclude the Golden Primary Care Network renovation project due to the significant budgetary increase.
In terms of the hospital board's 2025 budget, all approved projects are funded — excluding the renal and oncology expansion — out of current year revenue, while the renal and oncology expansion will come out of a capital reserve fund.
It includes a projected 2025 requisition of $16.3 million from property taxpayers in communities and electoral areas across the region.
For example, out of the 2024 requisition, Cranbrook and Fernie were the cities that contributed the most, at $2.15 million and $1.18 million respectively, while Electoral Area F — the rural area outside of communities such as Invermere and Canal Flats in the Columbia Valley — contributed $1.68 million.
Taxation increases of $30 per average residential property continue each year 2025 – 2029 to fund the Hospital District’s 40 per cent share of the renal-oncology project, the F.W. Green Home expansion and future planned long-term projects.
