The BC NDP and BC Liberals traded barbs Thursday over a planned new hospital in Cloverdale as the South Surrey byelection heats up.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix appeared with NDP candidate Pauline Greaves to tout the new $1.72-billion facility, slated for 180 Street next to Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Last month, the NDP government unveiled details about the hospital, which will include 168 beds, a 55-space emergency room and a cancer centre.
Dix called the facility critical to the rapidly growing city — on track to be B.C.’s largest by the middle of the next decade.
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And he accused the BC Liberals of taking steps during their last term in power to derail the project.
“The NDP in a previous iteration bought the land. The Liberal Party promised a hospital,” Dix said.
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“(BC Liberal Leader) Kevin Falcon was an MLA here, he promised a hospital in the 2005 election, and he broke his word. And he didn’t just break his word, he sold the land.”
The parcel of land proposed for a previous iteration of the hospital was among many the former BC Liberal government sold for just under $500 million between 2013 and 2015.
The Liberals, however, are accusing the NDP of failing on their own hospital pledge by building what they describe as a “glorified urgent care centre.”
“The NDP promised Surrey voters a full-service hospital, but all they’re getting is a glorified urgent care centre with just 168 beds, no ICU, and no maternity ward in Cloverdale,” Falcon said in a statement Thrusday.
“We’re committed to getting things done in Surrey, and residents can expect a BC Liberal government to deliver a full-service hospital to meet the vital needs of their community, not just the NDP’s glorified clinic.”
Health care is shaping up to be a key issue in the byelection, as the province grapples with a family doctor shortage, emergency room closures in small and rural communities and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this week BC Liberal South Surrey candidate Elenore Sturko and Green Party candidate Simran Sarai slammed the government over long ambulance wait times, after a Surrey senior was left waiting 10 hours for an ambulance with a broken hip.
Construction of the new Surrey hospital is slated to begin next summer, with a completion target of 2027.
South Surrey voters go to the polls on Sept. 10.
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