Health Minister Adrian Dix in Kamloops announcing the cancer centre business case on Feb. 8 (Image credit: CFJC Today/File photo).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: We’re right where we should be on getting a new cancer centre

Feb 29, 2024 | 5:55 AM

NOW WE’RE GETTING SOMEWHERE with the cancer centre. Doesn’t seem like it, but we’re right where we should be.

Last week’s provincial budget has local politicians hopping mad because it didn’t include mention of the cancer centre. The excuse given by the government is that it missed a printing deadline.

That sounds pretty lame. Opposition finance critic Peter Milobar has been hammering the government for it, saying he worries the government will stall until after the fall election, after which all bets are off.

Although Finance Minister Katrine Conroy says the centre will be included in a first quarter capital project update, Milobar says that update won’t come until very shortly before the election because the first quarter doesn’t actually start until April 1.

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MLA Todd Stone calls the missed printing deadline “total crap.”

They aren’t the only ones unhappy with the centre not showing up in the budget. Thompson Regional Hospital District Chair Mike O’Reilly calls it “totally unacceptable.”

Maybe it really was a printing problem, maybe it was incompetence. Either way, Milobar, Stone and O’Reilly are doing their jobs; keeping the government’s feet to the fire is how things get done, not with a website and an expensive, invisible lobbying campaign paid for by local taxpayers.

Our MLAs, especially, have a couple of direct and very public lines to the government. One is called Question Period. Another is the budget debate. Milobar has wasted no time bringing up the absence of the cancer centre in the budget, lambasting the government at great length during debate.

The government, which has no aversion to deficit spending, is insisting work on the new cancer centre will start in 2025. The fact this is an election year can work to our advantage — substantive evidence will have to be shown that the centre is on track, especially if the NDP hopes to do well here in the October election.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.