Construction on a new affordable housing complex in Summerland, B.C., is expected to begin this summer, but hopes of the ground floor of the newly-built Dickson Place becoming a primary health centre have been squashed after the province denied the district’s funding request.
“We’re super disappointed,” said Erin Trainer, Summerland’s deputy mayor. “This is a shovel-ready project, the doctors are on board, we got the community foundation on board, we have several other people ready to go, we’ve got a place to put it.”
The district has been working with community groups to help facilitate the project.
It’s been asking the province for several years to kick in $3 million of the $9 million required.
“Another $3 million was coming from the community foundation and the other $3 million was going to be raised through fundraising in our town and region,” Trainer said.
Last week, council received a response from B.C.’s health minister, who stated the the province is “unable to financially support” the proposed health centre.
“They lump us in with Penticton and that makes us feel like a bedroom community and we are not,” Trainer said. “We are our own community and our residents deserve to have their own health care here.”
In the letter to council, health minister Josie Osborne stated the province already provides millions to health care in the South Okanagan and Penticton’s Urgent and Primary Care Centre.
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“That’s 18 km away and for a lot of our residents who are elderly, that is a really big distance for them to get to.”
While the minister said Thursday morning the door remains open for Summerland to continue engaging the province, Osborne stopped short of any commitments.
“Of course the people of Summerland need that health care close to home,” Osborne said. “They have some now and of course we are committed to expand that out.”
The primary care centre would bring together medical professionals under one roof and help attract doctors to the community of nearly 13,000.
Dickson Place is being built by Parkdale Place Housing Society.
With construction set to begin later this year and no financial commitment from the province, the ground floor space identified for the health centre will likely be lost.
“We can’t afford to wait,” said Charmaine Kramer, CEO of Pardale Place Housing Society. “When we submitted our building permit, we submitted the plans that did not have it because it has been close to a two year drawn out process.”
Kramer also expressed disappointment at news of the funding rejection calling a health centre and senior housing all in one building a ‘good marriage’.
“We’ve lost out on an amazing opportunity,” Kramer told Global News.
The society also runs Summerland’s Angus Place, supportive housing for 90 seniors, many already facing barriers to medical care.
“Over half of them have to travel outside of town to get any kind of medical attention at all,” Kramer said.
Once ground is broken, construction on Dickson Place is expected to take two years.
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B.C. provincial government denies funding for health centre in Summerland
