WHEREAS the provincial LEED Gold standard has been instituted province wide for construction of public infrastructure and is applicable to construction of new medical facilities, including hospitals and residential care facilities; AND WHEREAS the LEED Gold standard is designed to make these facilities more energy and cost effective and can add an additional 3 to 10 to the capital cost of these facilities; AND WHEREAS the regional hospital boards and their local tax payers contribute 40 towards the capital cost of new facilities but gain no direct benefit from the LEED Gold standard as its results contribute only to operating costs: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM lobby the Province of BC to mitigate the increased cost to the regional health board contribution of the capital cost of these new facilities by reducing regional hospital districts share of construction costs by basing the split on the base line cost before cost of instituting LEED Gold standards on a project by project basis.
Ministry of Health In the February 2008 Throne Speech, government directed that all provincial public sector buildings be constructed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design LEED Gold or equivalent standards. In practice, this requirement applies to newly constructed buildings and not to renovations. The majority of capital projects involve renovation of existing buildings or replacement of medical and diagnostic equipment. A relatively small number of projects in the Ministry of Healths the Ministry capital plan are new buildings. Those new buildings are designed and constructed to LEED Gold standard for improved energy efficiency and provide a higher quality workplace environment i.e. better indoor air for patients, staff and visitors than non-LEED facilities. While there may be a small incremental cost to achieve LEED Gold during the initial construction phase, this is more than offset by the improved health care environment that benefits the entire community in which the new facility is located. Building to LEED Gold standard is one of a series of necessary improvements to the environment of modern health facilities in British Columbia and across Canada.