Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I would like to thank the Member for raising questions around this issue again so that I could provide committee with information as to the actual process and to clear the air that, in fact, estimates were done but they were not used. As a result of the questions that came out from Members of concerns raised and some very strong suggestions that something should be done, we have gone back and requested more information and I would be willing to provide committee members with the responses that we received from the Department of Health and Social Services. I would like to read some of it in for the record, as well, to the process. We do have a package here to hand out to members.
I am going to do this for the record because there is a bit of misinformation out there. Initially the information and questions that arose here were around the fact that there were bad numbers out there and poor estimations done. On that, I went back and made the request through FMB and Health to come up with the full history on this. That is what we are providing to Members. The way the work was done, there were estimations made during the preconstruction phase, and they were completed in 1999 for the utility and maintenance costs for the new facility. The estimates at that time were $1,012,083, which were over $300,000 more than the old facility was using on an annual basis.
When the project was in completion and they began moving staff, officials and patients over, another estimate was done based upon the original consumption estimates but revised unit costs. The estimate, at that time, came in at $1,487,500, which was $700,000 more than the costs of the old facility. The actual costs for 2003-04 year came in at $1,637,781, which is just $150,000 over the revised estimate. But because of the changing estimates that were being used and our stringent FMB requirement for substantiation for new money, it was felt at the time that it was best that the health board operate within the existing budget -- that was the old budget for the old hospital -- and come forward once they had actual costs for O and M. Once that was done, it went into the process as being built into the business plans as we go forward, and the department came back with a request for monies that they did not have, based on the discussions that happened through Health and FMB. It was the understanding that when they did have actual costs, then they could come back and better substantiate the need for dollars. So taking into consideration that the old hospital was 4,600 square metres and the new hospital is 8,800 square metres, and new code requirements for ventilation -- air turnover, as they call it -- and the new air cooling system that was in the new facility versus none being in the old facility, and the different equipment used and more space that is there, it has now come forward that, in fact, they were short substantially versus what they were told to operate on from the old facility. So that is how the numbers have come about. We provided that. There is also an attachment of the figures that were projected on electricity, heating fuel and the total costs and the unit costs, as well. We have provided that to members. Hopefully that will clarify the concerns and better show how this number was arrived at as we are here today. Thank you, Madam Chair.