Former premier John Horgan promised the treatment centre in 2020 provincial election campaign
Nearly three years after former B.C. premier John Horgan said a cancer centre would be built in Kamloops, B.C. — and decades after the project was first promised — the Thompson Regional Hospital District (TRHD) is demanding to know why construction has yet to begin and criticizing transparency around the project.
During their latest meeting on March 30, several directors at the TRHD, which helps finance construction projects and equipment purchases at facilities in the Thompson-Nicola region, grilled the executive director of the city’s Royal Inland Hospital (RIH), who repeatedly said she could only confirm the project is in the “concept planning” phase and that “nothing’s been approved.”
“There’s lots of details that have to be fleshed out, and until we flesh through some of those and actually have it approved, it’s hard to share,” said Tracey Rannie. When it opens, the centre is expected to be managed by RIH administrators and RIH staff.
In the latest sign of delays to the project, Interior Health last month withdrew a request for $240,000 of TRHD funds that were supposed to be spent on a feasibility study.
TRHD board chair Mike O’Reilly, who is also a Kamloops councillor, said the cancer centre — which was initially promised by the NDP government in the 1990s — is now among the top concerns for the region’s 150,000 residents.
“There’s been steps and work being done behind the scenes since the early ’90s,” he said. “We’re no farther than we were 30 years ago.”
O’Reilly said most people from the Thompson-Nicola region who need radiation are forced to travel about 210 kilometres to Kelowna, which has the closest care centre.
