The Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund (HIRF) was established in 1999 to assist public hospitals renew their healthcare facilities. In 2004, the HIRF program was reformed to streamline the project approval process and to distribute infrastructure renewal grants annually to hospitals. In 2007, the program changed to reflect the establishment of Local Health Integrated Networks (LHINs). The HIRF grant supplements a hospital’s existing renewal program and helps healthcare facilities address renewal needs on a priority basis.

The ministry’s HIRF allocation to each LHIN is the sum of the individual grants that the ministry calculates for each hospital in a LHIN region. The ministry calculates these grants using an activity-based distribution formula. The formula provides for an initial per site minimum allocation. After the per-site allocation, the remainder of the HIRF allocation is distributed to each hospital corporation using an activity-based measure that is derived from ministry base operating funding. The formula also includes a northern adjustment factor to reflect the greater costs of developing capital projects in the north.

Hospitals can use their HIRF grant to develop approved minor capital projects that extend the useful life, or result in an improvement in the quality or functionality of hospital facilities but that will not result in an increase in operating funding from the ministry.

HIRF Guidelines, 2007-08 339 Kb | PDF format

HIRF Submission Form, 2007-08 192 Kb | Excel Spreadsheet

HIRF Sign-back Agreement, 2007-08 26 Kb | PDF format

HIRF Settlement Report 198 Kb | Excel Spreadsheet

LHIN HIRF Contact List, 2007-08 38 Kb | PDF format

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To address any questions about the HIRF program: hospitals should contact their LHIN HIRF Contact (see the list above for contact information).

To submit HIRF forms :

• HIRF Submission Form - Hospitals must send completed Submission Forms to the hospital’s LHIN HIRF Contact (see above).
• HIRF Sign-back Agreement & HIRF Settlement Report - Hospitals must send these completed forms to the ministry using the information below :
• Email : capitalplanningandstrategiesbranch@ontario.ca
• Mail : HIRF Program Advisor, Capital Planning and Strategies Branch, 9th Floor,
  56 Wellesley Street West, Toronto ON, M7A 2J9

Call the ministry INFOline at 1-866-532-3161
(Toll-free in Ontario only)
TTY 1-800-387-5559
Hours of operation : 8:30am - 5:00pm

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