Image courtesy of Canadian Press

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Kamloops has to up its lobbying game on the cancer clinic

Aug 6, 2022 | 6:38 AM

A FULL-SERVICE CANCER CLINIC is in the works for Kamloops somewhere within the books of the provincial NDP government but it might be a long way off. Premier John Horgan promised during the election campaign in the fall of 2020 that a full service cancer clinic would be built here within the four-year mandate of a new NDP government

That was walked back significantly a year later when the now-majority government of the New Democrats said it was instead within a 10-year cancer care plan. Earlier this year, Health Minister Adrian Dix said the new clinic is in the “concept planning phase.” He’d said the same thing five months earlier. “The centre will be built.” Just a couple of weeks ago, he said it again. In other words, no timeline, no deadline

Over the past few years, most of the focus for Royal Inland Hospital has been on the $417- million patient-care tower. Now that the tower is completed and has been officially open since last month, maybe attention can be shifted to getting the new cancer clinic done.

While RIH has a good clinic now, it lacks the ability to provide radiation treatment. Patients in need of it currently must board a special shuttle bus to Kelowna. Radiation usually involves multiple treatments.

Aside from lobbying by our two MLAs and City Hall, though, there hasn’t been a lot of pressure on Horgan, Dix and the current government. No letter-writing campaigns, no rallies, no placards when the premier or cabinet ministers visit.

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The Kamloops quest for a full-service cancer clinic goes back to 1991-92 and even before that — talk began in the mid-1950s. Various studies and proposals followed. In 1976, the Interior Cancer Clinic was established at RIH.

In 1985, the RIH board of directors, supported by the medical staff’s cancer clinic committee and the medical advisory committee, submitted a proposal for expansion of the clinic to full service. The battle between Kamloops and Kelowna over the following years is what most people remember.

There was much debate about population size and geography, leading up to what we refer to in these parts as Mike Harcourt’s “broken promise.” Approaching election day in 1991, then-NDP leader Harcourt promised that Kelowna, Prince George and Kamloops would all get full-service cancer clinics. After beating Social Credit in that election, it took little time for him to start backing down.

An independent consultant, hired by the Socred government earlier that year, filed a report after the election favoring Kelowna as the site in the southern Interior. Thus, the battle began. Kamloops weighed in with an energetic campaign to keep the city in the running. Local media, led by the Kamloops Daily News, began a blitz to mobilize public support. I’ve not seen cooperation among local media, nor within the public, to that degree since.

The Daily News, Broadcast Centre, NL and K-97 kept in touch with “cancer-clinic campaign bulletins.” Local businesses and industries were brought on board to help with a petition signup. Staffers at Kedco — that’s the Kamloops Economic Development Commission, the precurser to Venture Kamloops — canvassed the city door-to-door.

A booth was set up at Aberdeen Mall to gather signatures. NL staff, co-ordinated by Peter Olsen, circulated among the crowds at Blazer games. Petition coupons were distributed to businesses. Weyerhaeuser Canada ran a sign-up campaign, too.

The Daily News even published a special supplement. Kamloops had the advantage of having two NDP MLAs in Art Charbonneau and Fred Jackson, and MP Nelson Riis joined in as well, blasting the consultants’ report as “flawed.” We collected 30,000 signatures and delivered them to the government in Victoria, all within a couple of weeks.

But Kelowna wasn’t letting all this go by without a response. The media there formed a counter-coalition. The Kelowna Daily Courier published its own supplement extolling the virtues of that city as the logical choice.

Supporters of the Kelowna site accused Kamloops of bringing politics into the issue — the Okanagan city was represented in Victoria by Socreds, so it fretted about being at a disadvantage. And, Kelowna matched Kamloops’ 30,000 signatures. In the end, of course, Harcourt reneged on his promise to Kamloops and the rest is history.

But there’s no longer a contest between Kamloops and Kelowna. The latter has its clinic. As Dix himself has pointed out, increases in population will increase the need for cancer treatment, and the only logical way to respond is to decentralize cancer clinics.

The need for a full-service clinic in Kamloops is no longer in question. All that’s lacking is a sense of urgency on the part of today’s NDP government, which has very little credibility on the subject thanks to its history. If Kamloops were to up its lobbying game to the same sort of level it did in 1991-92, it would surely have an impact.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.