“Without more delay”: Nicholas Cartmell and Stephen Dooley both put Cloverdale’s hospital first. Surrey-Cloverdale chooses who sees it through.

On 12 September 2023, Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix broke ground on a field at 5500 180 Street in Cloverdale, beside the Kwantlen Polytechnic University campus. It is the site of the new Surrey hospital and B.C. Cancer Centre, with 168 beds and a second emergency department for Surrey. Mike Starchuk, then the BC NDP MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale and a former firefighter, told CBC he was the only surviving member of his original firehall crew and would most likely one day need the cancer centre himself.¹

The news that day was not only the shovels. A year earlier the province had promised the hospital would open to patients by 2027, at a cost of $1.72 billion. At the ground-breaking the date moved to 2030 and the cost to $2.88 billion. The government cited inflation, supply-chain disruptions and labour shortages. Dix added: “Some will say we should have built this hospital 15 years ago, 20 years ago, and they are right.”¹

This August, Eby was back in Cloverdale. “It is on time and it is on budget,” he said of the hospital, and it would open “in February 2030, or sooner.”² Three years after the reset, the building is going up. On 24 October Surrey-Cloverdale chooses the MLA who will be in Victoria while it is finished.

It is an open seat. Elenore Sturko, who took it from Starchuk for the Conservatives in 2024, now leads CentreBC and is running in Surrey South; Starchuk is running for mayor of Surrey.³ Neither of the two candidates the polls put in contention has served in the legislature, and both put the hospital at the top of their lists.⁴

Nicholas Cartmell

Conservative Party of BC candidate, Surrey-Cloverdale

In his words

“Surrey neighbour since 2012, dad of three, former BC Sports Hall of Fame CEO and TELUS senior leader, now bringing the 55+ BC Games here.”

Top priority

“Build Cloverdale’s hospital without more delay.”

Portrait: Conservative Party of BC

Stephen Dooley

BC NDP candidate, Surrey-Cloverdale

In his words

“Recently retired Executive Director of the Surrey Simon Fraser University campus, Surrey Leader of the Year (2013), honoured recipient of the King’s Coronation Medal for Community Service (2024).”

Top priority

“Work to ensure completion and opening of the new Surrey hospital and cancer facility in Cloverdale.”

Portrait: BC NDP

Where Nicholas Cartmell and Stephen Dooley stand, in their own words.

Before the argument, the comparison. The Cloverdale Reporter and Surrey Now-Leader gave every candidate the same questions, word counts and deadline, and printed the answers as received. Both men listed the hospital among their top three priorities.⁵

01 The hospital at 5500 180 Street was promised for 2027 at $1.72 billion. It is now scheduled for February 2030 at $2.88 billion.

The hospital was a long time coming before anyone broke ground. Dix himself traced the promise back to the 2005 election, which the B.C. Liberals won; the BC NDP government of John Horgan announced the project in 2019. Surrey is the fastest-growing community in B.C., and in 2023 its mayor, Brenda Locke, said of Surrey Memorial Hospital: “The pressure points on Surrey Memorial Hospital are incredible.”¹

1. 2005A second Surrey hospital was promised during the provincial election, which the B.C. Liberals won.
2. 2019The BC NDP government announced the new Surrey hospital and cancer centre.
3. 2022The province promised it would open to patients by 2027, at a capital cost of $1.72 billion.
4. September 2023Ground was broken at 5500 180 Street. Completion moved to 2029, opening to 2030, and the cost to $2.88 billion.
5. August 2026Premier David Eby: “It is on time and it is on budget.” Opening “in February 2030, or sooner.”

In fairness to the government, this is a hospital it chose to build, and it is being built. When it opens it will have a cancer centre able to deliver about 100,000 treatments a year.² But “on time and on budget” is measured against the schedule and the price set in 2023, after the opening had already slipped three years and the cost had risen by more than a billion dollars.¹

02 Stephen Dooley has spent a career building Surrey institutions, and he would carry the government’s plan to finish the hospital.

Stephen Dooley, the BC NDP candidate, is the recently retired executive director of Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus. Before SFU he taught criminology and sociology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, whose Cloverdale campus sits beside the hospital site. He has chaired the Surrey Board of Trade and co-chaired the Surrey Poverty Reduction Coalition. He and his wife, Preet, have lived in the region for more than 25 years.⁹

He describes himself, fairly, as a builder of coalitions: “I have a proven track record as an authentic team builder who deeply cares about the people of Cloverdale.” He was Surrey’s Leader of the Year in 2013 and received the King’s Coronation Medal for community service in 2024.⁵ This week he made his party’s case to business: “I served as a director and chair of the Surrey Board of Trade, and I know how important it is for decision-makers to listen to local businesses.”⁶

In our view, that is a sincere pledge, and it is also the government’s pledge. If his party is returned, Dooley would sit on the government benches defending the 2030 date it set in 2023. He offers continuity, and continuity is exactly what the 2023 reset asks voters to accept.

03 Nicholas Cartmell wants a firm timeline, and says he has delivered multimillion-dollar projects on deadline.

Nicholas Cartmell, the Conservative candidate, has lived in Surrey since 2012 with his wife, Leslie; they have three sons. He spent 14 years at TELUS, finishing as senior director of strategic initiatives, partnerships and government relations, and later ran the western Canadian division of an event rental company with more than 100 staff at peak. In 2019 the BC Sports Hall of Fame named him its chief executive. There he raised the money for the Hall’s Indigenous Sport Gallery and brought it online. Today he is vice-president of the host society for the 55+ BC Games, which Surrey hosts in 2027.⁷⁸

His party has made the same promise in writing: “A Conservative government will complete the Surrey Hospital in Cloverdale on time and on budget, and will build a new Women and Children’s Hospital in Surrey.”¹⁰ He would start, he says, by convening a citizens’ council of neighbours “from every walk of life” so the riding’s priorities shape his work in Victoria.⁵

His public record is thinner than Dooley’s. He has never served in the legislature, his campaign website returned no readable content when we tried it, and his social accounts could not be read without logging in.¹¹ In our view, though, the question in Cloverdale is not who knows Surrey’s institutions best. It is who will hold the province to the date it has now set, and a manager who measures himself by deadlines, sitting outside the government that set this one, is better placed to do that.

04 Nicholas Cartmell promises no new taxes; Stephen Dooley promises lower fuel, grocery and insurance costs.

Both men lead with the cost of living after the hospital. Cartmell’s first priority reads: “No new taxes. Families can’t afford more.” He adds: “Your family makes every dollar count. Government should too.” Dooley lists “lowering fuel, grocery and insurance costs,” and his party has pledged to cut gas prices by up to 30 cents a litre by suspending part of the provincial gas tax.⁵⁶

The record of the party Dooley is running for is part of the comparison. Bill 2, the BC NDP government’s 2026 budget bill, raised the B.C. tax reduction credit from $436 to $690. The same bill raised the income-tax rate on the first slice of every income, the slice everyone pays on.¹²

Global News reported that government staff expect 60 per cent of tax filers to pay more, by $76 on average. The bill passed on 1 April after the House split 46 to 46.¹³¹⁴ Dooley was not in the legislature for that vote. In our view, a promise of “no new taxes” is the plainer answer for families who have just been handed a higher rate.

05 Surrey-Cloverdale was decided by 587 votes in 2024, and 338Canada projects the Conservatives ahead.

338Canada, which turns the published polls into a projection for every riding, rates Surrey-Cloverdale “CPBC likely.” Its update of 16 October puts the Conservatives at 47% and the BC NDP at 39%, each with a margin of eight points either way. It is a forecast, not a result.⁴

Surrey-Cloverdale, projected vote

338Canada, update of 16 October 2026. Bars show the projection; the thin lines show its margin either way.⁴

Nicholas Cartmell, Conservative

47%

Stephen Dooley, BC NDP

39%

Pat McCutcheon, BC Green

7%

Sargy Chima, CentreBC

3%

Travis Marchenski, OneBC

3%

0%30%60%

Pat McCutcheon, a retired engineer, is running for the BC Greens; Sargy Chima for CentreBC; and Travis Marchenski, a tradesman, for OneBC.¹⁵⁵ The margin of error is wide, and the seat has been close before. In 2024 Sturko won it with 10,268 votes to Starchuk’s 9,681, a margin of 587. If 294 of her voters had chosen him instead, it would have changed hands.¹⁶

In our view, Nicholas Cartmell is the better choice to see Cloverdale’s hospital through to its opening.

06 The field at 180 Street is a building site now. On 24 October Surrey-Cloverdale decides who answers for the opening date.

Advance voting runs from 16 to 21 October, and Final Voting Day is 24 October. Elections BC’s Where to Vote app lists every voting place in the riding.¹⁷

Three years ago, Surrey-Cloverdale’s MLA stood on that field and said he would most likely one day need the cancer centre being built there. The people of Cloverdale who will need it have already waited through one reset. Both candidates say they want it finished. Stephen Dooley is running to finish the government’s plan on the government’s date. Nicholas Cartmell says he will press for a firm one. In our view, that is the better promise to send to Victoria.¹⁵

Promised for 2027, now due in 2030. In our view, Surrey-Cloverdale should send Nicholas Cartmell to see it through.