Panorama

1995 The Denominational Health Association of BC is formed. Its members are the twenty-four owners of thirty-five faith-based health care facilities in the province of BC. The Association signs an agreement with the Province to provide health care services.
1997 Providence Health Care is formed through the consolidation of CHARA Health Care Society, Holy Family Hospital and St. Paul’s Hospital.
2000 Providence Health Care Society is formed through the amalgamation of the Chara Health Care Society, Holy Family Hospital and Sisters of Providence of Saint Vincent de Paul. It operates under the 1995 master agreement between the Province and the Denomination Health Association. Four separate foundations raise funds for Providence Health Care Society: Mount Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation, Saint Paul’s Hospital Foundation, Saint Vincent’s Hospital Foundation and Holy Family Hospital Foundation.
April, 2002 Providence Health Care announces its plans for the Providence Legacy Project which centres around the expansion and redevelopment of St. Paul’s Hospital where it stands. The project receives a positive response from the Government of BC, the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority which includes the project in its 2002 to 2005 Health Services Report. Providence goes on to promote their plan to others which includes a presentation to the Vancouver Board of Trade.

October, 2002 Schroeder Properties Ltd. walks away from their plan to develop Tech-Park.com which was to be located at 1098 Station Street. This project had previously received approval from City Hall. Schroeder Properties hands their interest in the property back to their lender, ING Realty Partners LP, a US company.
June, 2003 Providence Health Care announces another option for its Legacy Project. Instead of expansion and redevelopment of St. Paul’s Hospital, it wants to build a new hospital on the land now owned by ING Realty at False Creek Flats. Providence would abandon acute health care services along with research and academic space at St. Paul’s Hospital.
July, 2003 The 2010 Winter Olympics are awarded to Vancouver.
July, 2003 City Hall acknowledges that Providence Health Care wants to build a new hospital on False Creek Flats and move services from St. Paul’s.
Late 2003-Early 2004 The Government of BC gives Providence Health Care $3 million so it can prepare a business case (along with Partnerships BC) about whether Providence should stick to its 2002 plan or abandon St. Paul’s and build a new hospital on the Station Street Site. Providence promotes its choice to build a new hospital as a hospital for the 21st century. Providence starts to hint in its advertising that the new hospital would be an Olympic Legacy
March, 2004 Providence Health Care, with assistance from the Government of BC and the Government of Canada, and with the support of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, secures an option to purchase the False Creek Flats property at Station Street Site.
April, 2004 Vancouver Health Authority issues its new Health Services Report for 2004 to 2007. The report talks extensively about the new hospital plan for False Creek Flats.
June, 2004 In its 2003-2004 annual report, Providence Health Care again refers to its choice for a new hospital project as a hospital for 21st-century health care.
July, 2004 The City of Vancouver says it is waiting for a decision from the Provincial Government about building Providence’s new hospital on False Creek Flats. The city anticipates a decision will be made in the fall of 2004. If approved the city will go ahead with the rezoning process for a new hospital. The city says the new hospital would be a good fit for its redevelopment plans for the Flats.
July, 2004 Mount Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation loses its fight in the Supreme Court of BC to have control over the funds its raises. The dispute arose, in part, in 2003 between Providence Health Care Society and Mount Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation because Mount Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation refused a request from Providence for financial assistance for a feasibility study related to the Providence Legacy Project (Read the story from the Vancouver Courier)
February, 2005 The Vancouver Regional Construction Association says that contractors are anticipating $100 million in projects to build the new Providence hospital on False Creek Flats.
Currently Providence Health Care has abandoned its publicity for the expansion and redevelopent of St. Paul’s Hospital and refers to is plans for a new hospital as the only way to deliver proper health care for the 21st century. This vision is now referred to as the Providence Legacy Project.
July, 2005 Providence Health Care goes on a search for a communications specialist.
July 29, 2005 Partnerships BC says that Providence Health Care and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority are working on a document or briefing to present to the public (based on the work done so far in their study) before a final report is shown to the BC government. Partnerships BC goes on to say that there is still a lot of work to do before they are able to present formal proposals to the government for consideration. Partnerships BC says that if there was any expansion of St. Paul’s Hospital on Burrad Street, it would require the purchase of more land.
August 01, 2005 Over the past month I have come to the conclusion that St. Paul’s Hospital, where it stands now, how it operates now, is destined to reinvent itself. Providence Health Care Society seems determined to build a larger hospital outside of the downtown peninsula. I think the reason for the move is because St. Paul’s has become much more then a community hospital. Over time it has become a hospital that helps to serve the tertiary or specialized medical care needs of the entire city, region and province. Moving may be great for providing more specialized care for the region and better teaching facilities for doctors, but it will leave a serious hole that will need to be filled in Vancouver’s downtown peninsula, a geographically defined and densely populated area. I will continue to follow the development of the Providence Legacy Project but I have an idea for the creation of a new hospital, owned by the members of the community, which will provide essential medical care for the downtown peninsula
August 02, 2005 Partnerships BC provides a brief outline of the goal of the Providence Legacy Project (VCH refers to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority):

“VCH and Providence have been planning this renewal to help build a seamless continuum or network of care and services that supports patients, clients and residents at every stage of their lives, well into the future.

This kind of planning must provide a balance between regional and provincial commitments and those at the local level so that the needs of individuals who rely on specialized care in their communities are taken into consideration.“
October, 2005 Providence Health Care publishes a FAQ about the renewal of St. Paul’s Hospital
October 07, 2005 Members of the Save St. Paul’s Coalition meet with representatives of Providence Health Care and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. The feeling after the meeting is that both Providence Health Care and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority have been investing most of their efforts in designing a new, technoligically advanced hospital outside of Vancouver’s downtown peninsula.
October 12, 2005 Providence Health Care updates their Legacy Project page on their website to include the powerpoint presentaion made to the Save St. Paul’s Coalition. This presentation offers a profile of the patients that St. Paul’s Hospital serves.
November 2005 Providence Health Care updates their Legacy Project page on their website indicating that their plan to redevelop St. Paul’s Hospital is complete.
November 08, 2005 I spoke with both Partnerships BC and Providence Health Care and my understanding is that they are hoping to present their Providence Legacy Project proposal to the Province’s Treasury Board Staff before December 15th.

As I understand it the proposal being presented is the plan to build a new Teaching, Acute Care and Research Hospital on the Station Street site located by the Pacific Central bus and train station which is now owned by the Vancouver Esperanza Society.

Included as part of the proposal will also be a cost analysis and budget for rebuilding St. Paul’s Hospital where it stands now on Burrad Street. There is no plan by Providence Health Care for maintaining an Urgent, Emergency and Essential health care and medical treatment Hospital in Vancouver’s downtown peninsula if the government approves the plan to build a new hospital on False Creek Flats.
March 31 2006 BC’s Minister of Health, George Abbot, tells Xtra West Newspaper that the planning stage of the Providence Legacy Project is still months away from being completed. Mr Abbot also said he has not seen any of Providence Health Care’s plans.
April, 2007 Providence Health Care released two new drawings of what the future may hold for St. Paul’s Hospital and the new Providence Legacy Hospital Project at Station Street. Its now been 5 years since Providence Heaalth Care first announced plans to redevelop St. Paul’s Hospital.


May, 2007 The Vancouver Island Health Authority along with the Province of BC announce final plans to redevelop the Royal Jubliee Hospital in Victoria with construction starting in 2008. The plan took only 21 months to develop and is estimated to cost $269 million.
May 14, 2007 Business in Vancouver, a weekly newpaper, publishes a front page story in its May 15-21 edition: “St. Paul’s plan gets green prescription”

The author, Peter Mitham, writes that as part of the Providence Legacy Project, Providence Health Care wants to keep the original, 1912-era buildings of St. Paul’s Hospital and redevelop that part of the hospital to continue to meet the health care needs of the West End. He mentions that the new hospital on Station Street is estimated to cost over $950 million to build, not including equipment. Providence figures that a new, green, energy efficient hospital could save $31 million per year in operating costs and that the new hospital on Station Street is the most cost effective way to redevelop. Neil MacConnell of Providence Health Care (who has been working on the redevelopment through its various incarnations since 2002) is quoted as saying that there will be plenty of extra space left at both Station Street and Burrard Street for other types of land development, from which profits would help pay for the new hospital. Neil MacConnell also says in the article that no decision has been made on how to proceed and that the project has not been sent to government for approval. He says what has become a common message since 2002: that Providence hopes to complete public consultation this year. When would the redevelopment start if British Columbia approves it? Not until atleast 2010.
June 08, 2007 In an ongoing review the City of Vancouver is doing called the Metropolitan Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan the city publishes a draft report entitled ISSUES AND DIRECTIONS REPORT Inside the report a map of the West End shows the site where St. Paul’s Hospital stands now at Burrard and Comox, the area is marked as Mixed Use Residential. St. Paul’s Hospital is not marked at all on the map although a similar map outlining the Broadway and Oak Street area clearly identifies the site of Vancouver General Hospital. Where the draft report talks about the False Creek Flats area it is noted:

“ The area houses major rail yards that serve the port, two passenger rail terminals, and a bus terminal. There are also large areas of vacant and underutilized land, including a large site that is under consideration for the replacement of St. Paul’s Hospital with a major hospital/research campus.“
July, 2007 Providence Health Care, in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Health, distributes an 8 page Year in Review brochure. On page 8 there are two artist’s impressions of a new St. Paul’s Hospital on Station Street in addition to a preserved St. Paul’s Hospital on Burrard Street being used as a continuing health care site for people in the downtown peninsula.

They publish a brief description of their idea to develop both hospitals under the heading Building Towards the Future

From the brochure:

Read Renewing St. Paul’s Hospital (opens a Word document)

Click each image below to view a larger size.

St. Paul’s Hospital, Burrard Street

St. Paul’s Hospital, Station Street
October, 2007 Providence Health Care publishes a brochure that further outlines their intent to build, and the benefits of, a new hospital called Providence Health Campus on Station Street in Vancouver. The brochure also talks about how the West End of downtown Vancouver will continue to be served by the existing St. Paul’s Hospital. Services of a reconfigured St. Paul’s Hospital would include an urgent care centre, seniors’ care and services, seniors’ housing, social housing, HIV/AIDS specialty services, and ongoing primary health care for West End residents.

Read Transforming Health Care at the New Providence Health Campus (opens a pdf document)
April 10 2009 BC Health Minster George Abbott is quoted in The Province newspaper as saying that it is clear that St. Paul’s Hospital will have to be redeveloped in the immediate years ahead and although there is potential to redevelop the hospital at its current home on Burrard Street, it would be challenging. In the same article the NDP say that they have a 10 year capital plan in order to keep St. Paul’s Hospital right where it is. The provincial election is set for May 12.