B.C. health minister Kevin Falcon has put to rest rumours that St. Paul’s Hospital might move to False Creek Flats.
Falcon announced July 8 that work was complete on a new $14.7-million emergency room at the hospital’s Burrard Street location.
“We are focusing our investment plan for the existing St. Paul’s Hospital and their existing lands,” Falcon told Business in Vancouver after the announcement. “That’s opposed to a wholesale relocation, or a relocation of a significant chunk of what takes place at St. Paul’s, down to the False Creek Flats site.”
Falcon said that the government is retaining an option on the 18.5 acres of False Creek Flats land that was initially earmarked as a future home for the 116-year-old hospital.
That False Creek Flats land “may make sense for government for other healthcare options or other options for government but I am persuaded that it makes more sense to do a more modest but significant investment into the existing facility."