Northern Health Unit

By Cheryl Jahn

Northern Health

Acute Care Tower work underway

Mar 16, 2026 | 3:49 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It was a hot, sunny afternoon in August with the new hospital parkade as the back drop where then-Minister of Health Adrian Dix announced a project that had been on his desk for years: The new surgical tower for University Hospital of Northern B.C.

“The Board is extremely pleased about this. Very, very happy,” says Colleen Nyce, Chair of the Northern Health Board. “As we said, this is a long time in the making. This is now a $1.68 billion investment. The largest investment in medical infrastructure ever in the North and the work is just getting underway. The backside of the former site of The Bay is a bonafide construction zone.

“The Northern Interior Health Unit will be moving in the summer of 2026 over to The Bay location,” explains Sherri Tillotson, Chief Clinical Planning Officer on the project. “The Bay, as well as China Cup. The health unit needs to move in order to make space for our new 11 story acute care tower. That will come after we deconstruct The Bay or deconstruct the Northern Interior Health unit.”

200-plus people will be moving from the current Health Unit, right across from the Hospital on Edmonton St. this summer, and services from that day forward will be operated out of the new site, including some additions.

“The Interprofessional Team three will be fully integrated with the John G. McKenzie space and it will just provide more integrated care for the the people that we serve,” says Tillotson. “We are moving preventative and public health over there as well and just an increase in space for them, as well as our child and youth services, they will be in a more co-located space.”

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Upon completion, the 11-story facility will more than double the number of beds available for cardiac, mental health and substance use, and surgical services.

“Near the end of 2031 is when we anticipate opening the the new tower. So it will come, and it will come fast and bring much-needed services for the community and the region, that we are so excited to be bringing more services closer to home for the the entire region.”

The 2026 provincial budget presented in February was bleak and there were concerns as to whether some projects …. such as a $1.68 billion project.

“And we were worried,” says Nyce. “But so far, so good. We’ve been assured keep moving forward. So we are in design phase now and shovels in the ground is expected for, the building early in 2027. And you know what? We’re only nine months away.”

In the meantime, work is underway to move all the folks into The Bay location and, by the end of summer, the Health Unit will be a thing of the past.