Shovels hit the ground Wednesday at the Sun Peaks Health Centre, marking the start of construction on an expansion project.

Officially named the Sun Peaks Patient Safety and Transfer Improvement Project.

The expansion project will see two new ambulance bays and a community health education space added to the facility.

Mayor Al Raine explains the ambulance bays will help make transporting injured patients a lot easier.

“At the present time, ambulances are parked outside and it’s something that in the winter time, is a bit tricky getting from inside the clinic to the ambulance and in addition. The ambulances are sitting there often running because they want the ambulances to stay warm while they are waiting for the patients.”

While the need for the expansion has been something the facility has been needing for quite some time, Raine explains the wait is because of difficulty finding the funds to pay for the upgrades.

“The (Sun Peaks) Health Association applied for a grant about a year ago and they were successful so we are very pleased to be moving on with this.”

The grant worth $817,000 was from the provincial and federal governments through the Canada Infrastructure Program and COVID-19 Resilience Infrastructure Stream.

Raine says construction is set to be complete by Christmas 2022.