“We should have seen a lot more action long before now.”
That is Prince George-Valemount BC United MLA Shirley Bond’s initial reaction to yesterday’s provincial announcement that the business plan for a massive hospital expansion in Prince George had been approved.
Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the project in Prince George yesterday, saying an 11-floor tower will add 109 beds and expand mental health, surgical, and cardiac programs at UHNBC.
He also said construction on the building will begin in 2026 after a new parkade at the hospital is completed, and should be complete by summer 2031.
“We can have announcements continually, what we need is a tower to be built,” Bond said.
She also noted that Dix and the NDP first announced this project on the eve of the 2020 provincial election.
“Exactly the same thing happened. The minister and government made a promise that they were actually going to get moving on this project,” she said. “The initial project was made by us in 2017. The NDP got elected, by the time this project is actually completed it will be 14 years.”
“My concern is not about the quality or type of project, it is about how long its taking.”
Bond noted that the project costs have also gone way up since Dix’s 2020 announcement on the project.
In 2020 Dix said the tower would cost between $600 – 700 million, yesterday he said that cost was over $1.5 billion.
Bond also pointed out the news release for Dix’s 2020 announcement stated the business plan phase, which officially ended yesterday, would take “approximately 12 to 18 months.”
“Here we are in 2024 and we still don’t have shovels in the ground. I am very concerned about increased cost and timelines that will not see us have a completed project until, at the earliest, 2031,” Bond said, in closing.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
