Phase 2 of Burnaby Hospital redevelopment expected to begin in 2025, cost $1.7 billion

For the second day in a row, B.C. officials have announced more than $1 billion of spending on a hospital construction project in the Fraser Health region.

The procurement process is now underway for Phase 2 of the Burnaby Hospital redevelopment, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Wednesday.

Plans for the project call for a 12-storey inpatient tower with 160 private rooms and units for general medicine, medical oncology, cardiac telemetry, intensive care and high-acuity care.

The redevelopment also includes space for a new medical-imaging department, a BC Cancer Centre, a spiritual care suite, public spaces and hospital support services.

The estimated $1.7 billion cost will be covered by funding from the province, the Burnaby Hospital Foundation and the BC Cancer Foundation.

"Obviously it's a significant cost," said Dix. "Combined with Phase 1, it puts this overall project – which will bring with it a new Burnaby Hospital – to approximately $2.4 billion."

On Tuesday, Dix and Premier David Eby, along with other local and provincial officials, broke ground on a new, second hospital in Surrey.

That facility, which has also been in the planning stage for years, will cost a total of $2.88 billion – an increase of more than $1 billion from the most recent previous estimate. It's expected to be completed in 2029 and open to patients in 2030.

• Read more: 'We have no choice': B.C. premier explains rising cost of Surrey hospital as locals demand more care 

On Wednesday Dix noted that the province's total investment at Burnaby Hospital will be "almost as big" as the Surrey outlay.

"All of these projects have significant cost increases, but we need to build them," the health minister said.

"People in Burnaby and in this community needed a new hospital for a generation, and these projects were delayed and delayed and delayed. Well, we are proceeding."

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2025, just as Phase 1 of the redevelopment is scheduled to be completed.

Dix characterized Phase 1 of the project as expanding and modernizing the hospital's existing facilities and services, while Phase 2, he said, adds new care offerings.

He described the province's ongoing investment in new hospitals and other health-care facilities as key to recruiting and retaining workers to staff them – something the province has been struggling to do for years.

"Most of our hospitals were built in the 1950s and '60s," Dix said. "They've been serving us 24/7 for all that time, but health care has changed – we all know that – since the 1950s and '60s. We need a new generation of facilities as we recruit a new generation of health-care workers in our public health care system."