Kamloops is finally getting its cancer care centre with radiation treatment.

Speaking at Royal Inland Hospital’s Westland Staff Parking Lot by St. Ann’s Academy, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the concept plan has been approved and work on the business plan is underway.

“The residents of Kamloops, some of whom are here right now, have wanted this for a long time,” Dix said, noting the business plan will be approved this fall. “It is coming.”

He notes typical new cancer care centre projects cost between $200 million to $300 million, with the total cost set to be known later this year.

“The cancer centre is a provincial project which means that it will be paid for out of provincial taxpayers,” Dix said. “We are also adding a parkade [which will add 470 parking spaces at Royal Inland Hospital] and there will be discussions around joint funding there.”

“It is something the community, and especially healthcare workers and patients have been very clear that they need.”

Dr. Kim Chi at BC Cancer says the new Kamloops facility will replicate some of the services offered in Kelowna, meaning people in Kamloops and area will be able to get the care they need closer to home.

“Not only will the new cancer centre provide new radiation treatment options, we’ll also build up the capacity we need to keep up with the increasing demand for cancer care that is expected in the coming years,” Chi said.

“During its first year of operations, we anticipate the new Kamloops cancer centre will provide 6,600 patient radiation consults and follow up appointments and 14,000 treatment visits per year.”

The new Kamloops centre is expected to provide space for patient arrival and check-in; radiation treatment, including three shielded treatment rooms, known as bunkers; three high-energy radiation treatment linear accelerators (LINACS);  radiation therapy planning; one CT simulator; one MRI scanner; an outpatient oncology ambulatory care unit, including 10 exam rooms and two consulting rooms; and staff support spaces including offices and workstations.

The province expects the new Kamloops centre will provide radiation treatment to 1,000 patients in its first year of operations, which will result in 14,000 treatment visits per year.

Dix also says the existing cancer clinic inside RIH – which offers diagnostics and chemotherapy – will be expanded allowing more people to get treatment.

It is not clear when construction on the Kamloops Cancer Care Centre will begin.

Dix said he expects the first patients could begin to get radiation treatment at the Kamloops Cancer Care Clinic by 2027, noting more details on those timelines will be known when the business plan is approved.

“I think its positive news,” Kamloops mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson told RadioNL. “I mean things that happened in the past have happened in the past and hopefully we can just keep moving forward.”

As for whether he thinks the facility will be open by 2027, Hamer Jackson said he wouldn’t speculate, noting he staying positive while trusting that the province will follow through on its promise.

Kamloops Councillor Dale Bass though said she was left scratching her head after Thursday’s announcement.

“First [Dix] said the money is in the budget, and then he said he has to get the money approved. So I’d like to know if the money is in the budget or if it has to be approved, because we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars,” Bass told RadioNL.

Bass says she remains skeptical of the BC NDP government when it comes to radiation oncology treatment.

“I’ve heard this before. Most Kamloopsians have heard this before,” Bass added. “I don’t believe he can get it built, even if he does move forward this year, he could get it built by 2027. Look how long it’s taken to build the towers as it is.”

Thursday’s announcement comes more than a week after Dix announced that up to 50 cancer patients will be referred to two clinics in Bellingham, Washington each week in an effort to reduce wait times for radiation therapy.

At the time, Dix said nearly 83 per cent of B.C. patients start radiation within 28 days from the date they’re ready for the treatment, which doesn’t meet the clinical benchmarks the province has set as a goal.

“This is a significant day,” Dix said of the Kamloops announcement. “There are always discussions in these projects about then when’s and the how’s but I have passionately believed that we need to distribute cancer care services around the province.”

“This is why we are building and are in the process of building four new cancer centres, here in Kamloops and three other communities [Burnaby, Surrey, and Nanaimo], to provide care closer to home and to meet the significant increase in demand for care that we see.”

The Kamloops Cancer Care Center was first promised by then Premier John Horgan in 2020, with the original competition date expected sometime next year.

– With files from Abby Zieverink