Squamish will be home to the first hospice beds in the Sea to Sky Corridor it was announced Tuesday.
The provincial government has provided around $1 million for hospice palliative care in Squamish, Powell River and the Sunshine Coast, MLA Jordan Sturdy said at a press conference at Squamish’s Hilltop House Tuesday morning.
Representatives from the District of Squamish, Vancouver Coastal Health, the BC Centre for Palliative Care and the Squamish Hospice Society were on hand for the announcement.
Squamish Hospice Society will receive $400,000 of the province’s $1 million to put toward four new hospice beds at Hilltop House. The province has also committed to cover operational costs associated with the beds, Sturdy added.
“The province has committed to doubling hospice beds in B.C. over the next couple of years and the corridor is one of the areas… that has been a priority,” Sturdy said.
Dr. Judith Fothergill, of the Squamish Hospice Society and a long-time advocate for
palliative hospice beds in Squamish, said the announcement marks the beginning of major fundraising to complete the hospice space, which she said will be a “tranquil” and peaceful place for those at the end of life and their families.
The total to complete the space will be about $1.74 million, according to Fothergill.
“Thanks to the grant from the Ministry, that leaves us with $1.34 million to raise,” she said. “This is a very exciting day, but it is really a day on which the hard work really begins.”
Fothergill said the Hospice Society would soon get together to discuss upcoming fundraising campaigns for the hospice space at Hilltop House.
She said she estimates it will be 2019 before the project is complete.
MLA Sturdy speaks at the press conference Tuesday morning in Squamish.
