The province has cancelled a contract for the second phase of the Burnaby Hospital expansion, along with contracts related to five long-term care facilities, in the face of growing financial strain.
After initially saying the projects would be “re-paced,” the NDP government is saying it has cancelled consultant contracts for facilities in Delta, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Kelowna. Northern Health confirmed separately that they will cancel contracts related to the expansion of a long-term care home in Fort St. John.
A staff memo from Fraser Health obtained by the B.C. Conservatives shows contracts for the Burnaby Hospital expansion are also cancelled.
B.C. Minister of Infrastructure Bowinn Ma said the projects themselves have not been cancelled, but their timelines have been rescheduled, although she did not clarify any new timelines.
“Because the projects are now operating on a different timeline, those contracts are affected and in many cases they’ve had to be cancelled,” she said.
The province said the delays are a necessary step to bring down costs, as the price-per-bed of constructing these facilities has risen to “unsustainable levels.”
Ma said the projects, which would cost taxpayers $1.8 million per bed, are being reconsidered as the government faces a record $13-billion deficit.
Project stakeholders say they feel misled, and the official Opposition is calling for more transparency about when – or if – these projects will be completed.
Delta Mayor George Harvie believes the delays are setting the stage for something more permanent.
“For them just to come up now and just say all the contracts for the building of the Beedie long-term care facility in Delta is now been cancelled, that to me means one thing: it’s over,” he said.
Harvie said this is disappointing because construction has already started on the 200-bed project, and donors had raised about $18 million for the facility.
B.C. Minister of Infrastructure Bowinn Ma said the projects themselves have not been cancelled, but timelines have been rescheduled. (Ethan Cairns/CBC)
Ma declined to say how many cancelled contracts relate to these projects or how much the cancellations cost, deferring those details to the health authorities.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the cancelled contracts were for “pre-construction consulting services,” including engineering, design, cost estimating, and procurement.
CBC News reached out to all five regional health authorities to find out how many contracts were cancelled, how many projects were affected, and the cost of the cancellations.
Only two health authorities responded prior to publication.
Northern Health confirmed contracts will be cancelled for the Peace Villa long-term care home expansion, and said it does not expect any additional fees due to the cancellations.
An Island Health spokesperson said the health authority has contracts related to its Campbell River long-term care project, and that none have been cancelled.
The impact of these delayed projects will be felt across the health-care system, said Dan Levitt, B.C.’s seniors’ advocate.
“The postponement or potentially cancelling long-term care infrastructure, it’s very concerning because this is at a time when supply is not keeping up with demand,” he said.
“There’s this cascading effect of not building long-term care, it goes to the hospitals, emergency rooms, hospital beds. It impacts on doctor’s offices, on ambulances, and ultimately, the family members.”
A report from his office earlier this year found that the number of people waiting for publicly-funded long-term care has tripled since 2016.
Cristen Gleeson, board chair of the Fraser Valley Health Care Foundation, says it costs about $1,000 a day to house seniors awaiting long-term care in hospital acute care beds.
“Putting these projects on hold is not actually taxpayer savings, it creates a greater clog in the health-care system,” she said. “It adds to the crisis.”
Everyone wants to work to bring the price of these projects down, she said, though construction costs continue to rise.
Community stakeholders feel ‘misled’
Kristy James, president and CEO of Burnaby Hospital Foundation, said she feels betrayed. The expansion meant a lot to her community, she said, which had raised millions to upgrade the hospital for the first time since the 1970s.
“The second half of our redevelopment was put on hold to begin with, with no reason,” she said.
“That was upsetting for us, but then to find out that now it’s cancelled and not get that start date, it does feel like we were misled.”
The second phase of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment sought to create a new ICU, cardiac telemetry, a cancer centre, and additional beds. (Justine Boulin/CBC)
The second phase of the redevelopment sought to create a new ICU, cardiac telemetry, a cancer centre, and additional beds, James said.
Ian Paton, Conservative MLA for Delta South, said he worries the number of promised beds in the Delta long-term care project could shrink, or the project be cancelled altogether.
“The company that’s actually got the contract that’s working on it, that’s already spent $15 million preparing the site for our new extended care ward, have been told pack up your tools, your excavators, and you’re done,” he said.
“Transparency is the biggest issue right now.”