A year ago, it seemed like little could get in the way of plans to build a community health care centre on Bowen Island. DK Harris Properties had offered up a piece of land at the bottom of Cates Hill, with the plan to build housing on top of a first-floor health services centre. In October 2016, Tim Rhodes, a member of the Community Health Services Society, told The Undercurrent that he expected rezoning for the property to be complete within nine months, and a community health centre to be up and running in 2018.
This week, the Community Health Services Foundation confirmed that a new location was needed for the project.
In October, council decided - narrowly - not bring the rezoning forward for public hearing.
“If it had gone to a public hearing, council would have heard how supportive our community is about the idea of a healthcare centre, but I don’t think it would have changed the circumstances that led council and the developer to disagree about how to move forward on this,” says Rhodes. “In any case the site was not ideal, and I am optimistic that we’ll find something better for the community health centre.”
Of course, this does set the construction time-line back.
“I still am hopeful that we can get this done by late 2018,” says Rhodes. “There are a lot of factors at play.”
Ninety-three percent of Bowen Islanders surveyed told the Community Health Services Foundation that if there was a clinic on Bowen Island, they would use it.
The Foundation has already raised $750,000 in pledges towards the project.
