This is good for the North! It will be so much better for our sick. They will not have to travel so far away from family and friends in their time of devastating illness. Finally something we can be proud of in Prince George.

Great news!...now as long as the Campbell crew doesn't beat the hell out of it in the next round of budget cuts that will no doubt be coming!

win for the North

Nice to have this centre, I am not knocking it. But public funds are paying for it therefore it should be a traditional open tender process to give all contractors and subcontractors a shot at the job. Anyway it will be nice to have here in P.G.
metalman.

Great news. Its been a long time coming. However, I wonder why the new building will be featuring only First Nation Art and design. What's wrong with the rest of the artists who are not First Nation?

Gotta agree with rvuser, i for one am not particularly fond of first nations art and it ends up being EVERYWHERE. Oh well different tastes for different people. Nice to see the facility going in. Hopefully they will have a cancer prevention division as well.

"But public funds are paying for it therefore it should be a traditional open tender process to give all contractors and subcontractors a shot at the job."

Thas was and will continue to be an open tendering process. It is just not the "traditional" lump sum tender process.

This ia a design build process which had a competition to see which TEAM of designer, builders, building operations maintenance and finaciers would be selected. That process was open.

They do not have to name their subtrades and can thus go to tender for those when they wish. In some ways it is more of an opne bid process than the lump sum tender process.
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On another note.

I find it interesting to see a relatively modern looking building with high tech equipment in it, and then look at a 50+ year old working counter and cabinet design.

http://www.poggenpohl-porsche-design-kitchen.com/en/features.php

Fantastic!!

Its fine to have this facility in Prince George at the PGRH, to be available to service Prince George and Region, however I cannot but wonder why it is so necessary.

The mere fact that we need it suggests that we have a huge problem with cancer in this area. I dont know what the stats are but there is a huge segment of the population that has some form of cancer.

Perhaps we should be spending some of this money to find out the cause, in addition to the money we spend for treating the disease.

"Great news. Its been a long time coming. However, I wonder why the new building will be featuring only First Nation Art and design"

Where does the article state it will be featuring ONLY First Nations art? It says, and I quote, "Wood will be featured wherever possible, as will First Nations art and design". To me that means that First Nations art will be included. It doesn't mean that other types of art won't be . . .

Palopu, even if we did find the cause for the cancer, would anything be done about it? Hypothetically speaking for example, say we were able to determine that polluted air contributed to all sorts of disease ranging from respiratory illness to cancer. Do you think that people with the power to do so would implement steps to make the air better or would they just accept that the resulting disease is an acceptable tradeoff for not wanting to inconvenience industrial polluters?

Locally, our air quality IS an issue that contributes to illness. We also have a significant portion of our population who smoke, drink and eat like crap all the time. Just look at the number of pubs and liquor stores in this town for some evidence of that. People in PG also drive everywhere. You rarely see people walking or riding bikes in the summer. We scoff at things like trail networks (that could actually promote some healthy living) and instead demand that potholes be fixed as the #1 priority. How about having better sidewalks for a change? There are also huge challenges with obesity and diabetes in the north and generally speaking, the more ones health starts to go, the more and more cancer starts to creep in the picture. Obviously not all cancers can be prevented, but people can sure as heck reduce their odds of getting certain types of cancer. Unfortunatly, most people up here ignore all of that "health stuff" (and the investment decisions that could address some of those) and chalk it up to crazy talk from outsiders looking to change "our ways".

I remember twenty years ago when we were told flat out there would 'never' be a cancer clinic in Prince George.

It's amazing what can be accomplished when a small group of people grab onto an idea and won't let go.

The company my dad works for is one of the subcontractors, so it will be good to see he will be working in town for the next few years....

I worked as an apprentice for another company when the latest hospital expansion was done and the general contractor was very cheep I figured (decided to go into another line of work)... working four floors up in blowing snow at minus 30 with no protection from the elements for the workers or the work that was being done (working on a 12 foot ladder at the edge of the building sliding on ice and snow with a 100 foot drop)... it was a gong show from the perspective of the people that did the construction work.

Hopefully this time around the general contractor understands the building conditions in the north... it looks good so far from what I can see, as they are not going for the low hanging fruit in terms of subcontractors. So its off to a good start I think.

Palopu, I like what you write most of the time, but can you not find a positive anywhere in life? You can even put a negative spin on a cancer treatment centre.

Cancer exists whether you want it to or not, and this facility will save people in PG and region a lot of time and money with not having to go to Vancouver. This is great news.

Eagleone.

Next time you are in a situation like that, remember that you as an employee have the right to refuse unsafe work. Your employer must make it safe for you and if not you can contact worksafe BC.

One example for Palopu that he could sink his teeth into would be this as was reported in the linked article:
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"Sutter, a general surgeon who specialized in removing breast cancer tumors, said she spotted an alarming trend in breast cancer surgery in the North.

"Breast-conserving surgery requires radiation treatment. On average, two-thirds of women opt for breast-conserving surgery and one third for a mastectomy," Sutter said. "My numbers were the exact opposite. The lack of a radiation clinic was effecting what (my patients') options realistically were. It's a very exciting and long-needed facility for the North."
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http://www.bclocalnews.com/breaking_news/81879987.html

Go for it. And please refrain from using the argument that patients should not have the choice, or as one person on here would say, we have a choice, we could move to where the clinics are. We all know that.
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Also, some of our cancer rates are higher here than in the south, but whether they are alarmingly higher, I doubt it.

One simple example of why they are higher.
We have a higher smoking rate here than in many other communities. The lung cancer rate per population here is higher. That makes sense.

If the cancer rate per number of smoker were higher here, that would be alarming. It would also be an indicator that there are other factors which are at play with respect to lung cancers. BUT, no one makes that information public so far. In fact, no one may be looking for something like that. If they did or are, our population numbers are too low here to reach a scientifically significant conlusion.

Did I miss something, or did the article say that it will be built and run by Plenary Health, and will be funded by the government.

Does this mean that this is a P3?

If so, does anyone know if the funding provided by the government will be more than if it was a government facility, so that the company can make a profit, and a good return on their investment?

Great news.It is another step in the right direction for Prince George.

It is a Public Private Partnership.

The interesting thing about the terminology is that in any partnership, if one partner defaults, the other will be left holding the bag.

So much for the notion that government transfers the risk, which is what they like to say.

The government has been left holding the bag in many cases across Canada.

http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/10/06/public-private-partnerships-another-one-bites-the-dust

Cancer sucks. And so do the cures. Being exposed to radioactivity to the point of burning. Chemotherapy, ingesting an overabundance of chemical compounds with wicked side effects not the least temporary hair loss. Lastly comes removal surgery.Cancer for some in this world is the price for living. Radiation, chemicals and surgery. Are we ever going to advance any farther than that? And don't lay that cliche on me that says, "Well, we sure hope in the future...". We do raise a lot of money for it. Is there any clearing house that records all moneys collected and disbursed?

Wow Palopu, you must be a riot a party... I realize that you post negatively about EVERYTHING but come on - this story is all good. We need this up here and it is only going to help our region. Have you heard the one about how many muscles it takes to smile compared to how many it takes to frown...? ;-)

yes it is a P-3 ... a bad move for all involved ... it will cost the Gov more to run than if if it were up to the health region ....

as a side note ... the Gateway complex care facility at 20th and Victoria was supposed to be a P-3 ... the original contractor gave it up because they couldnt keep up