Time to make the project our community health priority
West Vancouver is overdue for an Urgent and Primary Care Centre of its own. I believe making it happen should be our community’s healthcare priority.
Council identified an urgent care centre as a goal years ago. It remains listed vaguely as “in progress,” with no publicly visible proposal for actually delivering one. As mayor, I would move it from aspiration to action: establish the demand, identify possible sites, bring private and philanthropic investment to the table, and take Vancouver Coastal Health and the province a proposal they can realistically approve.
As mayor, I would ask Council to direct staff to complete, within six months, a feasibility and business case for a West Vancouver UPCC, including projected demand, potential sites, clinical requirements, transportation access and public-private financing options.
West Vancouver has a Vancouver Coastal Health community health centre on Marine Drive, but its primary-care services operate limited weekday hours. Our nearest full Urgent and Primary Care Centre is in North Vancouver, too far with too lengthy wait times.
A UPCC fills an important gap. It provides same-day treatment for illnesses and injuries that require attention within hours but aren’t emergencies requiring Lions Gate Hospital. For a community with a large senior population (and, of course, young families), better access to this level of care should be a priority.
Health care is a provincial responsibility. West Vancouver cannot simply build a clinic and operate it. But municipal leadership can remove obstacles.
One of the largest is real estate.
I would invite proposals from landowners, developers, health-care property investors and philanthropic partners prepared to provide land, a purpose-built facility, equipment funding or some combination of them. The municipality should not automatically become the developer or financier.
The objective would be private investment in the physical infrastructure supporting publicly funded health care—not privatization of the care itself.
My opponent has suggested such a centre be in Cypress Village. I’d suggest it needs to be in a more densely populated part of the district to be most accessible.
We would then approach Vancouver Coastal Health and the province with a defined project and potential partners already assembled.
West Vancouver cannot order the province to give us a UPCC. But we can stop waiting for someone else to solve the problem. We can build the case, assemble the partners and make it much easier for the province to say yes.