It was a dream come true for Dr. Glenn Fedor at the official groundbreaking of the $366 million Cariboo Memorial Hospital (CMH) redevelopment project Tuesday, July 4.
Having worked as a physician in Williams Lake for 42 years, Fedor said he has heard many promises about the hospital over the years and seeing the redevelopment finally taking place is a signal that the provincial government and Interior Health support CMH.
“Please pinch me, make sure I’m not dreaming,” Fedor said.
Adrian Dix recalled first coming to Williams Lake as B.C.’s health minister in 2017 during the wildfires and said after that visit he entered into discussions about the CMH upgrade.
“It has taken longer than we wished to get to this point, frankly, but we are here and we are going to get building,” Dix said, noting the first phase will be completed hopefully by 2026 and the entire project by 2029.
The upgrade will include a new three-story addition, 25 new beds, renovations on the current facility, a new emergency department, new medical and surgical inpatient unit, a new mental health and substance use unit, a new ambulatory and oncology unit, a new maternity and a new women’s health unit, a new pharmacy and educational training spaces for UBC’s faculty of medicine.
Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) Chief Willie Sellars welcomed everyone to the traditional territory of WLFN.
“I wanted to touch on all the work it took to make Williams Lake a priority for a project like this. Hats off to the NDP and Minister Dix and all of those groups that lobbied and pushed to get the government to make the commitment,” Sellars said.
Sellars thanked the provincial government for their Secwépemc inclusion and content in the project.
“Holding up the Indigenous peoples of this land is a big part of reconciliation discussion,” said Sellars, who is also a member of the Interior Health Board of Directors.
Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District chair Al Richmond thanked everyone in the partnership who has helped make the redevelopment project.
“We want our people to be safe and have the best treatment possible,” Richmond said, noting this is the biggest project the CCRHD has been involved with.
Susan Brown, president and CEO of Interior Health, said it was wonderful to see the project getting started.
“The redevelopment of CMH will be a centre for high quality health care and will address the different considerations, challenges and opportunities of delivering care in rural settings,” Brown said. “A delivery that is different in this part of British Columbia than any other area.”
Brown thanked Dix, Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, Richmond, MLA Lorne Doerkson for their commitment to helping advance the project.
The mayor said he was glad that work had already started on the site before the official groundbreaking.
“The hospital redevelopment has been eagerly awaited by our community for many, many years,” Rathor said.
Before the groundbreaking with shovels in a part of the site that will eventually be a parking lot, WLFN Cultural Coordinator David Archie led a blessing ceremony of the site.
He gave an abalone shell filled with water to Dix, Rathor and Sellars who together poured the water onto the ground.
Archie said whether people are Secwepemc, Sikh, European, or whichever place their ancestors have come, people work together for the betterment of everyone.
Archie encouraged everyone to offer good energy, prayers and sprinkle ceremonial tobacco on the site.
The event closed with the singing of The Peace Song by the late Arthur Dick of Esk’et.
READ MORE: Initial work begins on Cariboo Memorial Hospital redevelopment project
READ MORE: Cariboo Memorial Hospital redevelopment construction contract signed, $366M project budget
monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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