New CancerCare facility will be world class: health minister
The province is building a new CancerCare Manitoba site that government leaders say will attract 'world-class' physicians and researchers to Winnipeg.
'In many respects, our province is doing its absolute best to deliver yesterday's care because we don't have the space to welcome the future,' Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told a news conference at the health-care agency's headquarters at 675 McDermot Ave. on Monday.
'This facility will change that.'
Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara (Mikaela MacKenzie /Winnipeg Free Press files)
The preliminary estimate for the project is $815 million and it's anticipated to take about four years to build.
Asagwara was flanked by Premier Wab Kinew and Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, past president and chief executive officer of CancerCare Manitoba, among others, to make the announcement.
The NDP promised to expand treatment for cancer services at Health Sciences Centre during the 2023 election campaign; Dhaliwal endorsed that pledge on the campaign trail.
In 2017, citing budget constraints, the former Progressive Conservative government scrapped a 300,000-square-foot expansion to CancerCare Manitoba. The project was estimated to cost around $300 million at the time.
Kinew told reporters his government is 'stepping up where the previous government stepped back.'
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The new facility will attract health-care workers and improve patient care, the premier said.
He noted that the province will use tobacco company settlement funds to support the project. Manitoba expects to receive $1 billion from a class-action lawsuit, the province said in March.
'We're going to invest every single dollar in curing cancer, in fighting cancer and supporting cancer patients — every step of the way,' Kinew said.
The health minister said the facility will help the province 'flex our research muscles' and host 'cutting-edge clinical trials.'
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.
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