IN THE LEDGE – We’re supposed to believe ‘Just trust us’ on cancer centre?

Excerpt from remarks by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA and Opposition finance critic Peter Milobar during budget debate on Monay, Feb. 26, 2024.

… THE CANCER CENTRE in Kamloops. It was promised in the 2020 election. It was supposed to be open in October of this year. That’s a four-year construction window from start to finish that was promised by a government that was in office that ought to have known what timelines were when they made that promise in an election campaign.

Fast-forward to this spring, so the spring of 2023. The Minister of Health comes to Kamloops, and he says, “Oh, the cancer centre is back on track, with an opening date of 2027.” That’s still a four-year window.

So what this government said, despite an election promise…. For something as critical as much-needed cancer care — at a time that we’re sending cancer patients down to Bellingham for treatment in a for-profit, private cancer clinic — the political will and expediency to move that cancer project along in Kamloops was not there until the spring of 2023, because, by their own admission, it’s still a four-year, start-to-finish construction cycle to get people in.

At that same announcement, the minister announced that it was in the business case stage of planning, and that would be out in the fall. Well, fall arrives, and the excuse is: “It’s a little delayed; it’ll be out by New Year’s.” That’s delayed, so then we’re in mid-February.

Two weeks before the budget gets announced, the minister comes back to Kamloops and assures everyone in Kamloops that the project is going ahead, that it’ll be $359 million and it’s in the budget and it’s proceeding but now it will be a 2028 timeframe for the doors to be open to receiving patients.

Myself, my colleague from Kamloops–South Thompson and many other local politicians all expressed some doubt around the timeline and all said, “We’ll give the government the benefit of the doubt, but you better be sure we will be checking that budget in two weeks to make sure it’s actually in the budget,” that $359 million is in the budget for this cancer centre and a 2028 completion date is in the budget.

It’s bad enough that it’s now four years delayed from when we’ll see patients getting critical cancer treatments in Kamloops instead of, potentially, down in Bellingham. But that was a commitment. And all of these timelines and all of these commitments were made by the government. The government chose the dates, the government chose the deadlines and the government has missed every single one of those.

So imagine my shock, the member for Kamloops–South Thompson’s shock, local elected shock, hospital foundation shock, when the cancer centre wasn’t in the budget. It’s not in there.

Mad scramble. Health Minister shaking his head when I’m saying that in the budget speech, that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Health Minister leaves, must have had staff look at the budget. They realize: oh, it’s not actually in the budget.

Guess what else wasn’t in there? Nanaimo — cancer centre promised on all the same timelines as Kamloops. Same broken promises as Kamloops. One has an NDP cabinet minister in it, in Nanaimo. Didn’t seem to matter.

Then we look. Oh, Surrey Memorial Hospital — its tower that was supposed to be in this budget isn’t in there either. NDP cabinet ministers are in Surrey; that didn’t seem to matter. The list goes on and on. The Olympic Village school, which was promised by the Minister of Jobs and Innovation, her riding, was supposed to be in this budget. No money.

Then the excuses start. The initial excuse from the Ministry of Health was: “Don’t worry. In just a few short months, there’ll be the first quarter update. And the project, the cancer centre in Kamloops, will be in that first-quarter update.” Now, to the average person, that probably sounds like a pretty reasonable thing — first-quarter update, must take a fairly quick turnaround — except the first quarter doesn’t actually start until April 1, first of all.

Then you’ve got to wait the three months to get through the quarter. And typically, first-quarter updates in B.C. do not actually get dropped until the second week of September. So that few short months is actually seven months. Best case scenario — that we would actually see the money for the cancer centre in the budget. And it was chalked up to a printer error.

Then Nanaimo hears about this, and they start to ask questions, and rightfully so, and oh, printing error for them. They’ll see it in the first-quarter update. We’re assuming the Olympic Village school, the tower at Surrey Memorial Hospital and other projects were all printing errors, apparently, according to this government. Because we can’t get clarification on some of those other projects.

So let’s walk through why that’s a problem. It’s a problem because in an election year, when you have an October election, there’s a provision in the Budget Transparency and Accountability Act that says the provincial government does not have to provide a first-quarter update. Isn’t that convenient?

Oh, and by the way, the September 15 date that the first-quarter update is supposed to be released this year is right when the writ period is supposed to be, which means we’d be actually in a physical election, which means the government can’t be making those types of announcements. Oopsy.

So now Kamloops, Nanaimo, Surrey, Vancouver, all these ridings — and the scary part is that this level of budgetary incompetence doesn’t seem to have a political stripe that follows it, because there are B.C. United and NDP ridings — are all supposed to believe that: “Just trust us; after the next election, the money is actually, physically in the budget.

“We can’t actually point you to a document that proves it. And we know we’ve broken promises now for four and a half years, but just trust us. It’s in there.”

Why this is particularly problematic in Kamloops’ case, and should be a warning to all other communities, is back when Mr. Harcourt was the Premier, guess what election promise he made to Kamloops.

Vote for the NDP, and you’ll have a cancer centre. Guess what happened as soon as the election was over. No cancer centre for Kamloops; one for Kelowna.

I don’t begrudge Kelowna having a cancer centre at all. It was the broken election promise, the broken contract with the public that happened. They actually did elect NDP members at that time. It has been a long time since for good reason.

We are literally back to the same spot. People will say: “Well, you had 16 years when you were in government. Why didn’t you build a cancer centre then?” Well, that’s not really how these health centres are built. We had five linear accelerators, which is the equipment for the treatment, built in Kelowna at the time. They have a certain amount of life to them. Over that time frame, over the last 20-plus years, they’ve hit end-of-life. They need to be replaced.

That’s what spurred on the commitment in 2020 in the first place, by both myself and the member for Kamloops–South Thompson, in the election, which two days later the NDP chose to match.

It’s significant, because that’s how you should responsibly keep expanding health services. Over those years, two of the five linear accelerators’ time was being used up by people in Kamloops and the surrounding areas. They were having to drive two-plus hours to get treatment several times a week. The people in Kelowna agreed. The people in Kamloops agreed. Everyone agreed — the best course of action for better health outcomes and better access to service, and to meet the growing demands of cancer care for a growing population — that now was the time to create the cancer centre in Kamloops.

The NDP agreed. They’ve just slow-walked it. And now we’re supposed to just believe: “Just trust us.”

Despite a Health Minister standing up in Kamloops two weeks before the budget drops to assure everyone it was in the budget, two weeks later, it literally was not.

And the problem with that was, our understanding is, the budget book was already at the printer a week before the Health Minister stood up to say that in Kamloops.

If that’s how we’re supposed to see this government overseeing health care expenditures of critical capital projects, like hospital towers and cancer centres, and not knowing what each other is doing on a $32 billion budget, which is part of the $89 billion budget, no wonder our health care is in such a mess….

Source: BC Hansard