New Hospital for Terrace?
Terrace B.C.- Finance Minister Mike deJong was in Terrace today and says the Province supports the plan for a new hospital that will replace Mills Memorial.
de Jong told the Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon attendees, the Provinces has “heard the calls from residents about the need for a new hospital in this community. A new facility will support this region, and the families that live and work in the region.”
That’s not to say construction will start anytime soon.
Northern Health provided an updated concept plan to the Ministry of Health this month, and once that is approved, there is a business plan to prepare. Work on the business plan will likely start this fall, and take up to a year and a half to complete. Then there’s the procurement phase, followed by construction.
The 44 acute care bed Mills Memorial Hospital opened 56 years ago. Northern Health Board Chair, Dr. Charles Jago says work to replace the hospital has been underway for some time “It’s been one of the top priorities for the board and we are pleased that the government has recognized the need to bring the planning process to conclusion.”
Comments
I for one am sick and tired of these delays in getting the work done by Northern Health. They’re probably all the same, bureaucrats protecting their turf. These plans should have been in the system years ago, but managers spend more time in meetings than doing to work that has to get done. No Can Do spirit it appears.
It’s not Northern Health it is the hoops they have to hop thru for the government. They do one step then have to wait approval to do the next step. Once they get so far the government sends them back to do it over because they change their mind as to how they want to go or what they want included. Any time you rely on government for funding count on the time line being stupid and the costs to double.
LT, totally agree, way too many checks and balances, what’s frustrating is private industry would have had it done by now, but I an well aware of lengths of time it takes, just thought they would’ve shortened it up in the last twenty years. Dream’in, I know.
It also doesn’t help that that area votes NDP and is far removed from the major urban centres in BC. I think it’s a symptom of a flawed democracy that doesn’t fully represent regions like the Northwest.
I am glad Eagleone brought up the fact that area votes NDP, would not put it past this government to play politics with people’s health and well being!
Seems to be happening economically, close a fish cannery in Prince Rupert (500 jobs lost), restrict commercial fisheries, ship whole logs overseas, depress a region into poverty (nearly 40% child poverty). Get them so desperate they will eventually say “yes” to LNG, or oil, pipelines for that matter. It’s called “getting to yes”.
The longer you can stall a program, the longer you can avoid spending the money.
Terrace will be the hub of North West BC and will be the major service centre, and distribution centre for Prince Rupert, Kitimat, and Highway 37, servicing the mines, and the Port of Stewart Etc;.
The time to get this new hospital off the ground is now.
I agree. The time is yesterday to get on with this for the simple fact the costs will double otherwise. There is only so many tradesmen available in the north and once the big projects like LNG start proceeding the window closes due to a trades shortage.
The role of government is to anticipate these things and if possible enable those big future private projects by drawing the trades people into these communities with public projects like a new hospital and get them done on a timeline where the trades people can just transfer to the next job as the first one is complete, thus creating a stable environment for the region retaining these skill sets.
Terrace is the hub of the Coast up there. They definitely need a new hospital, as does Hazelton
Spending infrastructure money in the smaller towns in BC is a good way to generate employment, and help to keep people in these area’s. Without some of the basic infrastructure facilities, people tend to move away.
My guess is that the majority of the increase in PG Population in the past 5 years (roughly 4000 people) is a result of people West of Prince George moving to Prince George because of better Government and health facilities, housing, shopping, etc; While this is good for Prince George it does nothing for the outlying areas.
Looks like they’ll be ready to start construction in time for election 2021.
LOL, my thoughts exactly… so why is this in the news? Oh yeah, there’s an election coming!
In the background Horgan is stomping his feet, this was one of my platform promises – no fair
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