The province has identified a site near the new Surrey hospital to build housing for health-care workers.
Premier David Eby announced Tuesday (Sept. 17), while at the site in Cloverdale, that the province is using land owned by the Fraser Health Authority to build rental homes prioritized for nurses and health-care workers and their families. It would be funded through the government's B.C. Builds program.
"The site where we're standing on is certainly a hospital construction site, but when construction is done, we need amazing health-care workers to staff that site," he said.
Eby added the housing is meant to improve retention of health-care workers at the new Surrey hospital "to ensure (workers) can fine the homes that they need."
When asked what the timeline could be for the project, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said B.C. Builds posts the project to its site and then builders come forward with proposals. He said B.C. Builds, which was launched earlier this year, already has projects "with shovels in the ground."
Kahlon said the province is hoping for "hundreds of units" on the site, which is located at 18050 James Hill Dr. in Cloverdale.
"We also have other sites that we're working on right now that we will be able to do similar things," he said, alluding to elsewhere in Surrey, the Interior and Vancouver Island.
But the exact design and size of the project will come once companies submit their bids, Kahlon added.
Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce executive director Scott Wheatley said priority housing for hospital staff will "allow the hospital to recruit the best and brightest in our new facility."
Construction on the new Surrey hospital broke ground a year ago.
The completion date for the project was pushed back to 2029, from 2027, and it’s expected to open to the public in 2030.
– With files from Malin Jordan
