ONE OF the inescapable facts about governments is that they are always building something someplace.
Regardless of the political party in power or general state of the economy there is always something happening as improvements or additions to public infrastructure are required.
Witness the current addition to Northwest Regional Airport or the construction to start to replace the level rail crossing on Hwy16 west of here with an overpass, both of which are being financed by a combination of federal and provincial dollars.
Sometimes things go wrong. Classrooms and a lift for disabled students were added to Kiti Ksan school on the southside at the beginning of the last decade just several years before the school was closed because of declining student population.
Still, you get the sense there is some order and thought into how public monies are spent. So it’s a mystery so far as to why the provincial government isn’t moving ahead with a detailed business case to replace Mills Memorial Hospital.
It’s the acknowledged number one priority on the Northern Health Authority’s major capital projects list so even though hospital planning and construction is a years-long enterprise, it is puzzling why they do not are to at least get a better sense of what’s involved.
It’s almost as if the province has washed its hands for new health care facilities in the entire northern half of the province for the time being.