Premier John Horgan says he has not broken a campaign promise made last year to build a cancer centre in Kamloops, though he hinted it is likely not going to happen by 2024.

John Horgan says the province remains committed to a ten-year cancer plan across the province.

“We are working at Treasury Board to get the dollars to put in place protections for people in Kamloops so they don’t have to travel to Kelowna to receive treatment,” Horgan said. “That was the initial genesis of the notion of putting more cancer services in Kamloops.”

“Our commitment to Kamloops remains the same. We’re going to keep working at that to make sure we get the services people deserve in that community.”

During a campaign stop at Thompson Rivers University on Oct. 17, 2020, Horgan said, if elected his government would build a cancer centre in Kamloops within the four year mandate of the next government.

“The services will be prepared and be delivered within the mandate of the next government, absolutely,” Horgan said then, when asked by NL News.

NL News asked Horgan about that promise during a media availability Thursday, Oct. 7, almost one year to the date of that campaign stop in Kamloops.

“The commitment as you know is to the people of Kamloops. They deserve this service,” Horgan said. “Particularly, as a cancer survivor, I fully understand the strain and stress on travel if you have receive treatment in a distant community. That’s why we made the commitment and that’s why we’ll fulfill it.”

When the BC Budget was released in April, both Kamloops MLAs – Todd Stone and Peter Milobar – said they were disappointed that there was no mention of a Cancer Centre in Kamloops.

“Not a single penny is allocated to this, not even planning dollars,” Stone said, on NL Newsday, noting it meant the NDP would likely break a promise to get the Kamloops cancer care facility up and running in four years.

“It is hard not to look at this and realize that the people of Kamloops are being betrayed yet again by the NDP when it comes to a commitment around putting a cancer centre, a much needed cancer centre, in our community.”

Back in January, Health Minister Adrian Dix told NL News that planning for the Kamloops Cancer Centre is underway, noting there will be elements of the ten-year plan released every year.

“We’re going to lay that plan out for the people of B.C. We’ve made a commitment and you saw some of the details on the campaign and now people at the BC Cancer Agency are putting together the plan and putting it in place,” Dix said, on the NL Morning News.

“What we committed to in the election campaign is a ten-year cancer plan and I think that makes a lot of sense.”