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The Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS) recently received a nearly $16 million boost in provincial funding to finish critical upgrades at Brantford General Hospital (BGH).

This brings the total amount of provincial money for the work to $23 million.

“We’re grateful to the provincial government for this much-needed additional funding for the hospital’s urgent infrastructure needs,” said Bonnie Camm, president and CEO of the BCHS. “These funds will enable the necessary repairs to ensure that we continue to provide exceptional services to our community.”

The $16 million will be going towards two key facilities projects at BGH: a boiler replacement project and the D-Wing Tunnel remediation project for damages incurred by a sinkhole.

The boiler replacement project will support the replacement of three failed boilers located in the D-Wing and will lead to enhanced reliability, efficiency and increased operational capabilities.

The tunnel remediation project will re-route all utilities in the compromised portion of the D-Wing utility service tunnel. The compromised portion of the utility service tunnel will then be decommissioned.

The boiler project is underway after being awarded to Hamilton-based Trane HVAC Systems and is expected to be completed in spring 2025. The tunnel project is currently undergoing an internal review and appeal process to finalize the procurement pathway and once underway, is expected to take approximately one year to complete.

The provincial government has already provided Health Infrastructure Renewal Funds to BCHS, including $5.2 million for the boiler replacement project, and $1.9 million for regular infrastructure upgrades including modernization of two of the elevators, repairs to other elevators, repair and air handling unit replacements, fire alarm upgrades and loading dock repairs.

This new funding is in addition to the $7.3 million the government has provided to BCHS’s boiler replacement project, as part of Ontario’s $229 million investment this year in infrastructure upgrades, maintenance and repairs at 129 hospitals at 58 community health care facilities across the province.

“One of our top priorities is the redevelopment of our two hospital facilities, Brantford General Hospital and The Willett Hospital, Paris, to meet the growing needs of our community and provide modern facilities as our dedicated health care professionals support the medical needs of residents,” said Camm.

“We are currently engaged in a capital planning process for the redevelopment of Brantford General Hospital and The Willett. In August of 2024, we submitted a revised Stage 1.2 submission to the Ministry of Health and are awaiting approval to move forward to Stage 1.3, Functional Programming.”

BCHS is the primary acute care facility serving Brantford, the County of Brant, Six Nations of the Grand River, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and surrounding communities.