NDP resurrects Burnaby Hospital Phase 2 but critics say plan breaks original promise

The B.C. NDP announced Monday it will resurrect Burnaby Hospital's stalled expansion, but the revised plan splits the original $1.8 billion Phase 2 project into smaller stages and drops explicit mention of the promised cancer centre—a move critics say amounts to breaking a commitment.

Infrastructure Minister Bowinn Ma said the government will provide $210 million for improved and expanded emergency and surgical services, to be followed by expanded cancer care and new acute-care services. The original Phase 2 was supposed to include an acute-care tower and a B.C. Cancer treatment centre. Phase 1, which opened earlier this year, delivered a six-storey health-care pavilion with 83 beds, including new maternity, neonatal intensive care, mental-health and medical units, plus six new operating rooms and expanded emergency department spaces.

Misty Van Popta, Opposition infrastructure critic, said the announcement doesn't resurrect anything—it merely breaks Phase 2 into pieces while failing to commit to the cancer centre. "Why are they not calling it a cancer centre anymore? This is classic campaign rhetoric where they're actually just reannouncing completing Phase 1," Van Popta said.

Kristy James, CEO of the Burnaby Hospital Foundation, said the community is "desperate for the beds" but acknowledged the province has provided no timeline or confirmed construction dates for the expanded phases. Huaiyu Yang, a former Burnaby resident whose first wife died of cancer at the hospital in 2014, said he's glad Phase 1 is finished but noted Phase 2 "was the real deal." During his wife's treatment, Yang had to care for her at home and travel to Vancouver for some treatments because beds were scarce for patients with longer life expectancies.

When Phase 2 was cancelled in April, the government cited budget constraints and a projected record provincial deficit of $13.3 billion. The B.C. Hospital Employees' Union has also called on the government to recommit to long-term care homes that were cut, saying "you cannot solve hospital overcrowding while leaving seniors waiting for the care spaces they need."