Chilliwack’s dream of replacing the outdated Bradley Centre put on hold
Published 11:03 am Monday, March 23, 2026
A long-awaited long-term care home for Chilliwack, announced in 2024 to replace the outdated Bradley Centre, is on hold, without a completion date in site.
The plan to build a $274-million, 200-bed care facility for seniors was one of seven B.C. long-term care-home projects placed on hold in the last provincial budget.
Provincial reps made the announcement that they were “adjusting the timing of delivery” of those projects, to incorporate the lessons learned on similar projects already underway.
Chilliwack Coun. Jason Lum called the decision “frustrating” and pledged to attempt to get the decision reversed at the Fraser Valley District Hospital board level.
Lum said he remembered the initial planning around 2016 when the Hospital District secured land and put a” high level agreement in place” whereby the Hospital District would build, and the health authority would operate a new long-term care facility.
“It’s a model that’s worked elsewhere, and it was a boost to finally put us on track to receive the infrastructure our community needs,” Lum said in a post reacting to the delayed construction news.
“Fast forward nearly 10 years, and the scope kept growing — mass timber, higher Step Code requirements, LEED, exploring added components like daycare.”
Those features are well-intentioned but costly, all adding delays.
“Now we’re being told these projects are too expensive — approaching $1.8 million per bed — and they’re being ‘re-paced’ which I guess is a fancier way of saying paused, with no known restart date.”
Lum noted “we can’t keep layering requirements” on critical healthcare projects, and then “act surprised” when they become unaffordable.
“Seniors can’t ‘re-pace’ aging, or the complex healthcare needs that come with it. They can’t wait while projects are redesigned over and over again with the cost of each delay — to families, to hospitals, to the system — only keeps growing,” Lum fumed.
“I’ll be bringing a resolution to the next Hospital Board meeting calling on the Province to reverse this decision on Bradley. We need to get back to basics: build the beds, and deliver the care. Full stop.”
The seven long-term care projects that were paused are in the following communities: Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Kelowna, Fort St. John, Squamish, Delta and Campbell River.
The initial announcement to replace the outdated 90-bed Bradley Centre was trumpeted with great fanfare by provincial and Fraser Health officials who gathered on a rooftop patio at Chilliwack General Hospital on Aug. 19, 2024.
The original plan was for construction to start in 2026 on Chilliwack’s new five-storey care home on Mary Street, with an expected completion date of 2029.
The project had reached the procurement stage of establishing design and construction management teams by the end last year.
The Chilliwack project was one of a cluster of care-home facilities fired into the planning pipeline, as part of an “unprecedented capital expansion” for this type of facility across B.C., as then health-minister Adrian Dix explained when the project was announced at CGH in 2024.
The “state-of-the-art” building design was to feature private rooms for each resident rather than shared rooms as structural improvements were coming on the heels of the pandemic, as well providing social and recreational spaces.
It is not known when the construction and procurement process will resume for the seven projects on hold. The B.C. budget document no longer lists a completion date for any of them.
—with files from Lauren Collins, Black Press