Minister Dix announcing the Cancer Centre, May 2023 (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

KAMLOOPS CANCER CENTRE

Kamloops cancer centre omitted from 2024 B.C. budget due to ‘print cut-off deadlines:’ ministry

Feb 22, 2024 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — With the 2024 provincial budget unveiled in Victoria on Thursday (Feb. 22), interested parties from Kamloops were keeping a keen eye on the capital expenditures list for the promised cancer centre.

Health Minister Adrian Dix was in Kamloops two weeks ago, announcing the completion of the business case for the $359-million project.

The provincial budget, by law, must show any capital project in the next three years that costs more than $50 million.

Missing from the capital expenditure list was any mention or dollars for the Kamloops cancer centre.

“After concept plan approval, projects are added to the province’s 10-year capital plan. This happened for the Kamloops cancer centre in mid-2023. After the business plan was approved, the project proceeded to the procurement stage and BC Cancer has already issued its [request for qualifications] for builders,” read an email from Ministry of Health Staff to CFJC Today.

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The omission of the Kamloops cancer centre was blamed on a missed printing cut-off.

“This project is well underway and although business plan-approved projects are generally listed among the province’s capital expenditures for projects greater than $50 million, due to print cut-off deadlines the Kamloops cancer centre is currently omitted. It will appear in the first financial report from government in 2024, which will be the province’s Q1 report in a few months,” continued the email from ministry staff.

Kamloops-South Thompson MLA and BC United House Leader Todd Stone called that reasoning “total crap.”

“They missed a printing deadline. This is absolutely unbelievable. I don’t know any other way to describe it than to say it’s total crap,” Stone told CFJC News. “Bottom line is, it’s not actually a budget commitment if it’s not in the budget document. There is not one penny for the Kamloops cancer centre in today’s budget, period.”

“(Dix) announces it only weeks ago in Kamloops and at the time he said that actually the business plan had been completed at some point late last year, so let’s say December. If that is the case, how could you possibly miss a printing deadline for a budget that is coming down in the third week of February? None of this adds up,” added Stone.

CFJC will have full reaction to this story on Friday.