On March 9th, the province announced that the Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) had been granted permission to move to Stage 1 for the planning of a new hospital in Brantford. In May 2022, Mayor Kevin Davis signed a lease agreement that deferred costs to lease the lands formerly occupied by Fire Station 2 and a parking lot at 311 St. Paul Ave, to the Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS), to be repurposed as part of the new hospital build. The lands, planned to be the site of a brand-new, 9-story, 440-bed patient tower, will eventually be transferred to BCHS as part of the final stage of the new build process. The estimated cost of the new build is $1.5 billion.
The BCHS Foundation is now in the process of a massive fundraising effort to provide for the necessary 10% local contributions to the overall costs of the project, estimated at $130-200 million. To meet this goal, it is expected that communities served by BCHS including the City of Brantford, the County of Brant and Six Nations of the Grand River will be required to make significant financial contributions.
At their meeting held Tuesday December 21, 2022, Brantford City Council ratified a decision to allocate a one-time 2022 surplus of $5,617,652 to a newly established, interest-bearing Hospital Redevelopment Reserve Fund. A majority of the unique one-time surplus was generated by special dividends as a result of the merger of Brantford Energy Corporation (BEC) with Cambridge North Dumfries Energy Solutions Inc. to create GrandBridge Corporation.
“The establishment of this reserve fund and the initial contribution sends a very important signal to our partners at BCHS, our community and the province, and demonstrates that we’re very serious and committed to build up this reserve,” said Brantford Mayor Kevin Davis. “It is this kind of forward financial planning that will ensure the success of this vital project that will benefit Brantford and surrounding communities.”
“The support of local municipalities is critical to the redevelopment of the Brant Community Health System,” said Dr. David McNeil, President and CEO, Brant Community Healthcare System. “We are grateful to Brantford City Council and the leadership of Mayor Kevin Davis for establishing this fund and for the generous initial investment in the redevelopment of a new Hospital that will ensure those in the communities we serve have access to state-of-the-art hospital care well into the future.”
