Premier Christy Clark stopped by the Oceanside Health Centre construction site in Parksville Wednesday morning as part of a local tour.
Along with local politicians she spent about 20 minutes at the site which she called “a tribute to Ron (Cantelon) and all the work he’s done over the years, and a tribute to all the work of the local communities and all the mayors.”
“A couple years ago when I was here, this was the number one priority,” she said of the health care project, indicating that she fulfilled her promise to get it built.
She even gave a nod to critics that have called for a full scale hospital or larger health centre, saying “this is certainly not the last health care project that’s going to come to this community.”
The provincial media took the opportunity to question Clark about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline.
On that topic, Clark reiterated the five criteria she said would have to be met before the province would support it, stressing that only one of the criteria is economic and the others deal with things like spill clean-up and the environmental review process.
She applauded Black Press owner David Black’s recent proposal to build a $13 billion oil refinery near Kitimat as a great way to start the conversation, but said it depends on Black attracting the investment funds.
She concluded by pointing out B.C. is “taking all the risk without many of the benefits — where’s the jobs?”
