Eby says Burnaby, B.C., hospital expansion will go ahead, despite cancelled contract

British Columbia Premier David Eby says plans for a hospital expansion in Burnaby are not dead, despite the government announcing this week that the construction contract had been cancelled. 

Eby says Phase 2 of the Burnaby Hospital project, which was slated to add 160 beds and a cancer centre, "will go ahead," but the current project was "off the rails," overbudget, and had changes that community members didn't feel consulted about.

He says cancelling the contract enables the government to "reset," to ensure a billion-dollar project is done in a responsible way.

The Infrastructure B.C. website lists the Burnaby Hospital Phase 2 and BC Cancer Centre Project as "in development" with a project cost of $1.7 billion.

Eby did not provide details on Friday about when the new project will now be completed or what changes might be required.

The hospital expansion was part of a handful of health-care projects cancelled by the government, including four long-term care facilities in Delta, Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Kelowna.

In a statement posted online Thursday, the Burnaby Hospital and Community Foundation CEO said she was "deeply disappointed" and that despite assurances the project had not been cancelled "a terminated contract with no confirmed start date sounds like a cancellation."

Kristy James says the city has made the case for redevelopment.

"Burnaby has one of the lowest bed counts in all of BC and is the third largest city, serving over 500,000 residents between Burnaby and East Vancouver," she said.

"We had gone through the approval process, the community stepped up and raised over $55 million for our redevelopment. It is time for the government to do what they promised and finish building Burnaby Hospital."

Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck