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The non-profit Maskwa Medical Centre being built in Grande Prairie, Alta., is continuing to attract interest from municipal leaders in northeast B.C.
Maskwa chair Ken Drysdale met with the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) on Sept. 10, He provided an update on the facility’s construction and said the centre could serve both B.C. and Alberta.
“We’re friends and neighbours, we’ve always worked together well. I think that should continue, and we need to do that in the in the arena of health,” he said, suggesting the idea of a interprovincial health committee to discuss shared needs.
According to its website, the facility is aiming to open by 2027, with the goal of providing access to medical specialists to northwestern Alberta as a team-based practice.
He says the idea for the centre was started in 2017 by local business leaders as an effort to meet the needs of Alberta residents.
“Since then we’ve been reaching out to northeast B.C. to see where we could accommodate some of their needs and help out,” he said.
More than $18.5 million has already been secured for the facility’s construction through fundraising, with $15 million in capital funding currently being sought from the Alberta government, according to figures presented during the PRRD meeting.
Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen said she’d like to see provincial barriers to accessing health care reduced.
“It’s regretful that we have that border when it comes to accessing medical attention,” she said.
Drysdale says the precedent to work together on health care has already been set by provincial governments, with B.C. patients already able to access scheduled surgeries in Alberta.
“I just think we all need to band together, collaborate, and get rid of these borders. Especially when it comes to health,” he said.
It’s not the first time the topic of aligning health care with Alberta has been discussed, with Drysdale delivering a presentation in May.
Northeast B.C. has close ties with Alberta, physically linked by the Peace River, itself.
The University of Alberta has already agreed to be a tenant on the building’s first floor, explained Drysdale, and would use the centre as a training facility for students.
Electoral Area E Director Dan Rose expressed interested in sitting on an interprovincial health-care committee, and says access to the Alberta facility would be beneficial for the Peace.
“Basically, their vision is the Mayo Clinic of the north,” he said. “With online access to specialists all over North America, as well as resident specialists there.”
However, Rose said health care is the responsibility of the B.C. provincial government, despite the PRRD stepping in to help with recruitment and retention of medical professionals through several health-care scholarships and bursaries.
“It’s not in our lane, but we jumped in there anyways,” he said.
Rose said aligning with Alberta makes sense, and said the two provinces used to work closely together, with regular cross-border rural patient transfers.
“It doesn’t make sense to feed people out of the north into a saturated system, in Prince George or further south,” he said.
“If it works out, you’ll see a full service, treatment centre in Grand Prairie that will be able to do anything.”
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