Calgary Cancer Centre to open on Oct. 28; Alberta premier promises miraculous ‘future without cancer’

There were seven uninformative canned quotes in the Alberta Government’s news release yesterday announcing the imminent opening of the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Calgary on Oct. 28, an unusual number by any reckoning. 

Of course, not one of them said anything about the role of Sarah Hoffman, the NDP minister of health when ground was broken on the new facility back on Nov. 3, 2017. 

Ms. Hoffman, premier Rachel Notley, and infrastructure minister Sandra Jansen (anyone remember her?) showed up as well, all wearing their white construction helmets the right way ’round, and none of them were mentioned in the UCP news release. 

“This building will be so much more than a hospital,” Ms. Notley said at the time. “We hope that, in addition to the great care that you will receive here at this new centre from the great people who work here on your behalf and for you each and every day, that you will also find comfort in the weeks and the years and the decades to come.” (Emphasis added; nothing like that in the UCP release.)

“I am thrilled to see us reach another major milestone on this long-awaited project. Strengthening health care is a priority for Albertans,” said Ms. Hoffman back in 2017.

Nor was there anything yesterday about premier Alison Redford, whose Progressive Conservative Government first announced the plan on March 1, 2013. “This state-of-the-art facility will be a hub for cancer care for Calgary and southern Alberta,” Ms. Redford said then. 

I just included those quotes so we don’t forget our history – since remembering history, as the UCP’s favourite curriculum writers would be sure to tell you, is usually considered a virtue in conservative circles. Especially if you can memorize the relevant dates, which in this case are 2013, 2017, and 2024. 

We probably shouldn’t complain about those intentionally forgotten contributors to the saga of building what the UCP boasted yesterday would be “one of the most advanced cancer centres in the world.” That is, of course, if the UCP can find anyone to work in it – which may prove to be something of a challenge if the current chaotic state of health care in this province persists, as the UCP seems determined to ensure happens.

Whether or not they would have ever gotten around to digging the hole without the NDP remains a matter of some controversy. The ground-breaking in 2017, Ms. Hoffman, now the NDP health critic, reminded readers sharply on social media yesterday, “ended decades of political interference and stalling by conservatives.”

As for the latest news release’s canned quotes, Premier Danielle Smith and Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s weirdly over-promised what the new hospital can deliver, as perhaps befits the mood of the UCP just days before Ms. Smith’s leadership review in Red Deer on Nov. 1 and 2. 

“The Arthur Child,” as the UCP has apparently decided to nickname the new hospital – sort of like “The General,” or “The Misericordia” – “will also focus on prevention and early detection that we hope will one day lead to a future without cancer,” Ms. Smith was quoted as saying. 

Ms. LaGrange was a little less ambitious in her promise, pledging only that “Alberta’s government will continue to do everything it can to prevent future cancer cases” – except maybe cleaning up petroleum industry pollution, but you can’t have everything. 

Some readers may wonder who Arthur Child was and why he rates his name on a $1.3-billion hospital building. 

Well, Mr. Child was the multi-billionaire octogenarian owner of the Burns Foods conglomerate, which ran beef slaughterhouses among other food processing plants in Western Canada. A workaholic, he went to work in his Calgary office most days well in his eighties. He was best known in journalistic circles for his startlingly dark toupee, when he clearly could have afforded one with a little strategic grey in it. He died in harness in 1996 at 86. 

But Mr. Child’s charitable foundation did donate $50 million to the project, which obviously buys enough naming rights to include even a couple of extraneous initials (for James Edward, so nothing fancy). 

That presumably was the inspiration for the name, although one suspects Mr. Child’s donation of a mere $1 million to the Reform Party of Canada may have counted for more with the UCP. 

Speaking of Red Deer and the UCP, as we just were, the local newspaper reported Wednesday that Patrick Malkin, owner of a local beanery known for defying COVID-19 restrictions during the global pandemic, is settling nicely into his new job as Premier Smith’s deputy chief of staff. 

“A lot of people think that everyone just reports to the premier,” he helpfully informed the Red Deer Advocate’s scribbler. “That’s not exactly the truth. There’s a lot of different tasks, and a lot of people report to different offices and do different things.”

Who knew? Mr. Malkin also said he’s looking forward to “a lot of good debates and a lot of good things coming forward from the government” when the next session of the Legislatures starts on Oct. 28. 

His appointment, readers will agree, was entirely on brand for Premier Smith.