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Kamloops Liberal MLAs Todd Stone and Peter Milobar want more transparency from the provincial government on its delayed plans for a local cancer clinic.

Stone and Milobar called the lack of transparency "unacceptable" in a news release issued today, March 29, three years after former premier John Horgan promised the clinic.

"(Health Minister Adrian Dix) needs to step up and direct Interior Health to come clean about the details of the cancer centre project and include the public in the planning process," Milobar, the Kamloops-North Thompson MLA, said in the release.

Interior Health appears to be in the very early stages of planning the clinic, by preparing to create a business case, but it's not clear how long it will take to complete.

The Thompson Regional Hospital District recently put a $240,000 budget line on hold for the business case as it waits for Interior Health to host more "stakeholder" meetings "in the coming weeks," according to a regional district staff report.

“If Interior Health has truly been working on the concept plan, they should have nothing to hide and there should be no reason to keep details about it from our community. After three long years of waiting, people have the right to know what, if any progress has been made on the project. Right now, it’s nothing more than another broken NDP promise to the people of Kamloops," Milobar said.

The former premier promised a Kamloops Cancer Centre during his 2020 campaign trail.

The provincial government released its 10-year cancer plan last month, but it doesn't specifically mention plans for a new clinic in Kamloops.

Patients in the Kamloops region currently travel to Kelowna for radiation treatment, but go to Royal Inland Hospital for chemotherapy and diagnosis.

Roughly half of all cancer patients in B.C. undergo radiation therapy, according to the province.

“It’s unacceptable that the NDP government promised this project nearly three years ago, and Kamloopsians are still waiting for even the most basic details about timeline, location, and the scope of this much-needed cancer centre,” Stone, the MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson, said in the release.

It's expected the cancer clinic will be added onto the Royal Inland Hospital.

The news release from the B.C. Liberal MLAs goes on to criticize past NDP promises when Kelowna was picked over Kamloops to get its cancer clinic in the 1990s.

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