Vaughn Palmer: The B.C. NDP plan to plan for a plan

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby travelled to Surrey this week to announce a remedy for the health-care crisis in a community that looms large in the NDP’s re-election strategy.

“Surrey’s quickly growing population needs health care to grow with it,” Eby said Monday. “People need to know health care is accessible, not after a long wait or a long drive to another community. World-class health care should be available right here in Surrey.”

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He announced “that a new acute care tower is on the way for the Surrey Memorial Hospital to help meet local needs by adding more hospital beds and more services south of the Fraser River.”

The news conference had all the trappings of NDP media management: the premier, flanked by ministers, MLAs, officials and stakeholders to thank the New Democrats for their commitment to Surrey.

It sounded big. Urgent, too. As if a solution were at hand for Surrey’s widely reported troubles in the health-care sector.

But when reporters got to ask questions, the NDP government’s latest “big and shiny object” (to quote a leaked cabinet memo that surfaced last year) began to fade into the distance.

Surrey was in crisis right now, with doctors saying the health-care system was “bursting at the seams.”

When would this acute care tower be ready to accept patients?

There was no timeline for the start of construction, never mind an opening day, conceded Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix.

They didn’t yet have a business plan, one of the fundamentals for a capital project of this size.

The news release provided a timeline for that:

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“During the next 15-18 months, the project will proceed to the business-planning phase. Consultation will include engagement with health-care providers, Indigenous partners, the community and local municipalities.

“The business-planning process determines project scope, budget, timelines and procurement strategy. Once the business plan is complete and approved by government, the procurement process will start.”

These things are rarely delivered on time. But let’s assume they finish the business plan in 18 months.

Only then will the government announce the scope of the project and start the procurement process — call tenders, develop a short list of qualified bidders, negotiate and award the final construction contract.

So, in effect this week’s news was the premier announcing a plan to announce a business plan — and do so roughly one year after the October election.

“You can always do things faster, I suppose,” said Dix at one point during Monday’s proceedings.

The project retreated further from reality when reporters asked for a budget.

It was not possible to provide a costing, said both Dix and Eby, because, see, there wasn’t a business plan.

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But that excuse ran into difficulty when a reporter drew attention to the three-year capital plan in the recent provincial budget.

Some $18 billion worth of health-care projects were named in the plan but the new tower for Surrey Memorial was not one of them.

Not in the capital plan. No business plan. How real was this commitment?

Oh ye of little faith! Returned the premier.

“This project is going directly to business plan, which means it is in the capital budget,” Eby insisted.

While not listed in the three-year plan, apparently the Surrey Memorial tower is in the 10-year plan, which the New Democrats don’t make public. (Imagine what other election-year surprises might be lurking in that plan.)

“This is in our capital plan so by definition we have room for it,” continued Dix. “If there isn’t money for it in the budget, you don’t announce it. That’s straightforward.”

Soooo … if it is in the capital plan, then they must have some idea of the cost, no? The New Democrats wouldn’t approve a major capital project without at least a ballpark estimate, would they?

It took three questions, but finally Dix conceded that yes there was a ballpark estimate “in the neighbourhood of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion dollars.”

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However, the premier cautioned that the government will have “a better idea of construction costs” once the project is put out to tender.

I’ll say. Look what happened to the NDP plan to build a second hospital in Surrey. This time last year, they were saying it could be done for $1.72 billion. After the bids came in, the cost was revised upward to $2.88 billion at the groundbreaking ceremony last September. The completion date had also retreated from 2027 to 2030.

A 67 per cent overrun and three years behind schedule before they’d even put shovels in the ground. But if it provoked any second thoughts with the premier, he didn’t voice them at the news conference.

“There was no choice,” said Eby. “We have to deliver for the people of Surrey. And we have to maintain our high standards. We weren’t going to compromise on what was available in the building.”

Based on that experience, the proposed tower at Surrey Memorial will be over budget and behind schedule as well. And if David Eby is still premier, expect him to be making more excuses for it.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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