Provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix said the government “will have more to say” and “soon” about the status of a second hospital for Surrey but otherwise provided little detail when asked about it at a press conference Tuesday.
Dix was in Fleetwood, at the Elim Village seniors complex, to announce upgrades to seniors’ services in Surrey, Delta and Langley.
SEE: Province gives $12.8M boost to senior care in Surrey, Delta and Langley
Dix noted Premier John Horgan has committed to seeing another hospital built in Surrey and that the concept plan, being overseen by Dr. Victoria Lee, president and CEO of Fraser Health, was launched in December 2017.
“We committed to that, the premier committed to a second hospital in Surrey. The concept plan is going well,” Dix said Tuesday.
“Dr. Lee is leading that initiative, I am very confident. We are fully intending to deliver on that second hospital that’s needed in this community. There’s some challenges, I say delicately, in a totally non-political way. The previous government did sell, for reasons passing understanding, a Surrey site in Surrey that would have been very valuable to us, but we think we can get there and we’ll have more to say about it soon.”
In the 1990s Mike Harcourt’s NDP government bought some property at 5750 Panorama Drive, near 152nd Street and Highway 10, as a potential site for a new hospital but the Liberals sold the Panorama property for $20,516,000 in March 2014. Townhouses and condominiums are being built there.
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