Fourteen months after crews first broke ground on the new Surrey hospital in Cloverdale, the project has reached the halfway point in structural construction. B.C. Premier David Eby was on hand to acknowledge the milestone Friday, marked by workers pouring the fifth floor of the building. The long-awaited hospital being constructed just south of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus will include 168 beds and 55 emergency treatment spaces, along with a new BC Cancer Centre. The premier also took a tour of the mock up centre, which has been designed to test out treatment spaces before they are permanently installed in the hospital. Trades teams have been collaborating with health-care workers and administrators, to ensure that all the systems work for patients and staff. The price tag has risen by more than $1 billion since the project was first announced, with the latest estimate coming in at $2.88 billion. Delays have also pushed the date for completion back to August 2029. When questioned about the budget overruns Friday, Eby said: “The work that was done here was to integrate what was originally a community hospital, with what now includes a full modern state-of-the-art cancer centre as well.” The hospital is being billed as an ultra-modern facility with cutting-edge technology. The BC Cancer Foundation says patients will benefit from new PET and CT scanners, as well as a brachytherapy suite. It will also be home to the province’s second cyclotron, which provides the materials used in PET scans. Fraser Health says the facility will be one of the first fully electric hospitals in the province, and among the first in Canada. Eby also justified the price tag as future-proofing for the growing community, stating, “We are spending extra to make sure that it is future-ready for the needs of the city of Surrey and the people of Surrey.” The construction milestone at the new hospital comes as other projects are put on pause. The 2026 budget delivered last month included a timeline “adjustment” for the second phase of redevelopment at Burnaby Hospital. The project, which also included a new cancer centre, is now listed as having no estimated date of completion.
