Capital Plan Development Task Force Update #29

The Capital Plan Development Task Force reconvened on September 12 for its final meeting to complete its evaluation of the five building design options contemplated for the Two Acute Sites service delivery model. The options considered for both sites include: renovation and expansion, or a complete new build. For the South Muskoka site, a further approach to build a new hospital on a different piece of land was also considered.

The task force’s analysis included construction cost estimates from a cost consultant, public consultation and feedback on the options, in-depth study of the local share portion of the capital cost that the community is responsible for through the Ministry’s capital planning process, and objective and subjective evaluation of the options using approved design guiding principles and quantitative criteria. 

To assist the task force in completing its evaluation, a Local Share Working Group was formed to determine the financial contribution that could be required of our communities and identify opportunities and strategies to raise these funds. Having met several times over the spring and summer, representatives of the Local Share Working Group presented their findings to the task force at the meeting. The task force understands from this work that the local share is relatively the same and not materially different for each option, and that the hospital foundations, District of Muskoka and area municipalities recognize the financial commitment required and philosophically support the need.

With the affordability piece of work accepted, the task force evaluated  the options by the scoring the options against the design guiding principles and quantitative criteria. The task force arrived at a unanimous recommendation of a:

• New hospital build on current land for the Huntsville site
• New hospital build on new land for the South Muskoka site

The task force looks forward to bringing a formal report with this recommendation to the MAHC Board of Directors at its regular meeting on October 10, 2019.

The Chair thanked all members of the task force for their hard work, dedication and commitment to hospital future planning over the past 25 months.