Construction on Calgary Cancer Centre concludes, will accept patients in 2024

With construction on the Calgary Cancer Centre now complete, the provincial government has handed over control of the facility to Alberta Health Services (AHS). 

Infrastructure Minister Nathan Neudorf and Health Minister Jason Copping made the announcement on Friday at the $1.4-billion facility, which sits next to the Foothills Medical Centre.

It's now up to AHS to fill the centre's empty spaces with equipment and get the building ready to accept patients in 2024.  

"Nearly half of Albertans will deal with a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, and that's why the Calgary Cancer Centre is so needed and so important," Copping said. 

The 13-level building will feature outpatient clinics, 160 inpatient beds, wet and dry research labs, a clinical trials unit, 15 radiation treatment vaults and 1,650 stalls of underground parking. 

"The centre was designed to encompass the whole continuum of cancer care -- from prevention, screening and early detection to research and collaboration, treatment development and clinical trials, to patient care and to education," Copping said.

It'll take in patients across the province. 

"We are going to be an internationally-recognized cancer spot," said Dr. Dan Morris with AHS. "We will have a central referral area to serve all of Alberta."

The centre -- which is 187,000 square metres large -- was built with intake in mind.

Morris says the idea is to accommodate patients in the far future. 

"When we moved in to the renovated Tom Baker Cancer Centre in 1999, we outstripped its space in about three or four years," he said. "So this has been a vision long-standing."

Copping acknowledged that AHS will need to attract workers to staff the centre, but wouldn't say how many. 

Copping said he believes recruitment will play a massive role and is confident the building itself -- and all of its state-of-the-art equipment -- will help bring in workers. 

With files from The Canadian Press