MLA John Rustad Reflects On 2018
NORTHERN BC – In October Health Minister Adrian Dix announced the approval of a concept plan for the redevelopment of the Stuart Lake Hospital and Health Centre in For St James. This approval grants permission to Northern Health to begin the development of a business plan which will outline in more detail, the replacement plans for the hospital. It was a highlight of the year for Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad.
“The announcement going forward, it is just a concept plan that was approved but now it goes to a business plan which then goes to the construction, that’s very good news, it’s something that’s been needed and you know I worked hard with the current government to try to move that thing forward and I’m really pleased to see that they took the steps to do that.”
But it wasn’t all good news for Rustad’s riding, one of the largest fires and one of the largest wildfire seasons ripped through his riding scorching 93 thousand hectares of forest, a massive blow to one of the areas biggest industries.
“A huge impact within the area, you know some people lost their homes. Fortunately, there were no lives lost but there was a lot of timber that was burnt. Obviously, a very negative impact so it’s going to take years if not decades to recover from those fires. Moving on from that, we’ve got other situations that are happening such as New Gold is putting on pause, we’ve got the Cariboo situation, we’ve seen a number of mills now taking curtailment.”