Ground Breaking Starts Construction of New Cancer Centre for the North

Thursday, July 29, 2010 01:55 PM

l-r Health Minister Kevin Falcon; Premier Gordon Campbell; Minister Forests and Range, Pat Bell; B.C. Cancer Agency's Dr. David Levy; Cancer Survivor Garry Grant; Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad; Minister Transportation and Infrastructure Shirley Bond and Lheidli -T'enneh Councillor Louella Nome

Prince George, B.C.- It has been a project the north has been waiting 20 years for, and today, the ground was finally broken to mark the start of construction of the Northern Cancer Centre.

Although the dignitaries ( including Premier Gordon Campbell ) were flinging some gravel for their photo op , the real ground breaking was done by Gary Koble.

He is the operator of the excavator (which you can see in this video), which breaks the ground. The IDL employee says he is proud to be involved in the project. “I also was the first to break the ground over there” says Koble as he points at the new parkade for the Cancer Centre. “I am really happy to be part of it, it has been a long time coming.”

Koble is right, it has been a long time coming.

Initially there was a study which indicated a cancer centre was not the right thing for the north. Health Minister Kevin Falcon says he was in the room when that presentation was being made to the Premier. According to Falcon, the presenters had started by telling the Premier the population base was too small, and the distances too vast to support a cancer centre “That’s when the Premier spoke up and said ‘I’ve heard enough, we ARE building a cancer centre in the North, thank you.”

That was when Charles Jago and then Northern Health Chair Jeff Burghardt were given the task to do the study and make the case for such a centre.

In celebrating the ground breaking, Premier Campbell noted the facility, which will cost just over $102 million dollars, will have 54 thousand square feet of space and will used 650 thousand board feet of wood.

The centre, when complete will make the world of difference to cancer patients, says survivor Garry Grant. He had to travel to Vancouver for radiation treatment and says had the centre been up and running in Prince George, it would have been far less stressful as he would have been able to be at home with family between treatments.

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Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2010 01:55 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: camoose on July 29 2010 4:15 PM

I see the Photo-op crowd are out of hiding. Maybe they figure the HST thing has gone away. Not for me. I just got dinged a bunch for a new gas furnace. $400+. Falcon says it's good for me and it won't be much. I figure this pensioner will pay about an extra 1500-2000 a year HST and then all the other hidden taxes are added in. Tanks a bunch Gordo.

Posted by: Resident on July 29 2010 6:46 PM

Is that dirt or the usual Campbell B.S. they are shoveling?

Posted by: Palopu on July 29 2010 9:48 PM

Camoose. They may think that the HST thing has gone away but they are dead wrong. It is alive and well, and will be back in the Headlines around August 11th.

After that there will be headlines about the two court cases, and then come November the re-calls will start to get organized. Even if the re-calls fail (some will and some wont) this issue will be in the headlines for the next year, or more.

It is very important that people keep this issue front and centre, because if they dont, we will be saddled with this bloody HST for the rest of our lives.

It has now been proven conclusivly that those European Countries that went to a Value Added Tax, (VAT) are averaging about 24% and they have spent all the money and are going broke.

The last thing the BC Government needs is more money. They need to learn to work with less money and do a better job. If not then we should kick them out.

Posted by: Chester on July 29 2010 11:06 PM

Building more cancer clinics has zero effect on reducing the amount of cases of cancer we are experiencing every month.

When are we going to spend more walk-a-thon money on studying prevention?

I received a report yesterday of the top 100 Charitable Organizations in Canada. It appeared that only 53% of the money donated to the BC/Yukon Cancer Society is used for programs. That means about 47% is ground up in administering this huge machine. The article was in Moneywise Magazine this month.

How much headway are we really making with discovering the cause of cancer? How much money is actually spent on this type of research.

Posted by: PrinceGeorge on July 30 2010 7:31 AM

Comment: "Building more cancer clinics has zero effect on reducing the amount of cases of cancer we are experiencing every month."

That may be true, but you would expect (and hope) to receive the best potentially life saving treatment as soon as possible once diagnosed with cancer!

If there are not enough facilities you would have to stand in line and wait, perhaps until it is TOO LATE! That is why Kelowna got a cancer clinic and that is why Prince George is getting one now!

Comment: " How much headway are we really making with discovering the cause of cancer? How much money is actually spent on this type of research."

A lot of headway is being made. There are many different causes of cancer and often we do not know what caused a particular kind of cancer. That is why more research is going on. Many cancers which were a virtual death sentence just a couple of decades ago have now an impressive rate of successful cure after treatment with the latest chemo and radiation.