While the B.C. government is in the process of building four new cancer care centres, its Health Minster says the facility at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops will be among the first to open.

Adrian Dix was asked how much of a priority the Kamloops facility was compared to other new ones in Nanaimo, Burnaby, and Surrey.

“I would expect Kamloops to be pretty much first amongst those, in terms of opening,” Dix said. “Not first in announcement but first in opening because of the nature of the project and that’s what the business plan tells us.”

“The Burnaby and Surrey projects are part of major hospital developments, which means it will be ready later than Kamloops where the major construction on the hospital – [the Gaglardi Tower] – occurred prior to that. I would expect that project to run pretty much in parallel to Nanaimo.”

Dix was in Kamloops last Thursday, where he said the business case for the facility and a 470-stall parkade has been approved, with more details about the procurement phase expected to come this week.

“What you’ll see in the month of February is those bidding documents going out for pre-qualification, and then we’d begin that process where we select who is going to build the Cancer Care Centre,” Dix said.

“You’re now going to see milepost after milepost pre-qualification, then the RFP process, and the construction beginning in 2025.”

Dix says construction on the long-promised Kamloops Cancer Care Centre will be complete by 2028.

The $359-million project will be paid for by the provincial government, Interior Health, and Thompson Regional Hospital District, though how much each organization will be responsible for has yet to be determined.

“We as a board feel we are in the home stretch but [we] will not quit advocating and working with our partners at the provincial government, Interior Health and BC Cancer, to ensure that this centre is [built] on time,” TRHD Board Chair, Mike O’Reilly said, last week.