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April Progress Pictures

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Spring has officially sprung and progress on the new Stuart Lake Hospital is blossoming. Keep scrolling to check out this month's updated construction photos!
As the snow melts away, the wide sidewalks at the hospital emerge to soak up the sun. Inside the facility, the rays shine through the windows on the progress within. Pictured right, the Primary Care waiting area has come a long way since the March progress photos! Most notably, this space has brand new lighting and a finished ceiling.

Throughout the health centre, large windows showcase the picturesque landscape of Fort St. James. Depending where you are in the facility, you may be looking out at the lake and mountains, or you might have a tranquil view of the forest!
Staff areas are also coming together, as pictured on the right. Roomy workstations ensure doctors, nurses, and other health care staff will have more efficient workflows, which means better care for patients!

When a loved one is in the hospital or long term care, having a support system can make all the difference. The Gathering Space, pictured left, will be a comfortable area where families can come together to visit. During our engagement process, the community shared how important it would be to have a fire feature in the space. In the photo above, you can see the beginnings of a custom fireplace, which will be the centrepiece of the room.
On the right, the Graham team is hard at work bringing some colour into the new build.

The Gathering Space, Spiritual Space, and Long Term Care areas each overlook what will be beautiful patio gardens, facing the lake (top left). The Long Term Care wing has seen some major work in the past month including substantial progress on the nursing station (right) and the open concept dining area (bottom left).

The hospital will also have a private Palliative Care suite (top right). The suite features a large room to keep your loved one comfortable that opens onto a family area, complete with kitchenette. The Healing Garden, located steps outside Palliative Care, will feature carefully landscaped gardens featuring culturally important plants (bottom right). Since the new hospital will open in the winter, the garden will be completed in Spring/Summer 2025.

One of the biggest changes in the hospital since March? Doors!
Nearly all doors have been installed throughout the facility including sliding doors in Emergency (top left) and more private doors with customizable memory boxes in Long Term Care (top right). Residents in long term care will be able to decorate their memory boxes with photos and mementos that help identify which room is theirs.

Even though we've been showcasing our patient areas most, staff areas are also well underway. The boiler room photo (left) showcases a tiny corner of the massive space that will keep the entire facility running smoothly. Bottom right, the lab space in the new hospital is much larger than the current facility. Top right, the Graham crew works to install flooring in the future morgue.

We can't wait to welcome the community into the new Stuart Lake Hospital in 2025. Until then, check back for project updates and let us know what you're most excited for in the comments!

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March Progress Pictures

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You've seen how exterior construction has progressed thanks to the time-lapse video we shared last month, but what's going on inside the new Stuart Lake Hospital? The team from Graham took us on a site tour this week to see how it's all coming together.
Keep scrolling for a look inside the new facility!

Welcome to the entrance of the new Stuart Lake Hospital! Natural light is a priority to ensure the new space is as bright and inviting as possible. You'll find floor-to-ceiling windows walking in and sky-high ceilings in the main reception lobby.

The new site will move health services under one roof. Above is a sneak peek at the new Primary Care areas (left: reception and waiting area, right: patient room).

In Long-Term Care, we want to make sure the space is inviting for residents and their families. On the left, you'll see one of the spacious rooms (with a spectacular view of Mount Pope). On the right, the tour is scoping out the common areas, which will eventually become a living room/lounge area, dining room, and kitchen.

Even though construction has come a long way, there's still lots to do before opening! The Graham crew is hard at work making sure every detail is perfect. (Pictured right: the new Spiritual Space begins to take form. Top left: crews building the long-term care nursing station. Bottom left: Graham project manager Drew sharing plans with HSA Megan from Northern Health)

We can't wait to welcome the community into the new Stuart Lake Hospital in 2025. Until then, check back for project updates and let us know what you're most excited for in the comments!

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Construction Time Lapse [VIDEO]

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Construction on the new Stuart Lake Hospital has come a long way since breaking ground! Now that the exterior of the new facility is almost complete, we thought this would be the perfect time to look back and see how it all came together...

Tip: Make sure you're watching in 1080p for the best viewing experience.

Did you know you can see the SLH build progress from the comfort of your home? Check out the live snapshot, time lapse, or take a tour through the archives with our SLH construction camera.

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Project Update: February site tour

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It's a new year, and that means there are exciting updates at the Stuart Lake Hospital. Construction has progressed over the winter months, and the exterior is nearly finished! Development activities are now shifting primarily to interior work.

Northern Health President and CEO Ciro Panessa was in Fort St. James to visit the future hospital and check out the newly-mounted exterior cladding.

Pictured: Sebastian Mountjoy (Project Manager), Andre Wakkary (Sr. Project Coordinator), Ciro Panessa (CEO Northern Health), Drew Woods (Sr. Project Manager), Nathan Shields (Site Superintendent) show off the almost-finished exterior of the new hospital.

This fall, the team will start installing equipment and getting internal systems ready to go for opening in early 2025. The new building will bring all health services under one roof, providing:
- 27 beds: 18 community care and 9 acute care
- An emergency department with 2 treatment rooms, a trauma bay, and a covered ambulance bay
- Primary care
- Lab and diagnostic imaging
- In-house spiritual and gathering spaces
- Larger space for palliative care
- Culturally and medicinally significant landscaping with outdoor spaces and gardens
Pictured: Sebastian Mountjoy (Project Manager), Andre Wakkary (Sr. Project Coordinator), Ciro Panessa (CEO Northern Health), Drew Woods (Sr. Project Manager), Nathan Shields (Site Superintendent) visit the site of the new Stuart Lake Hospital.
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November 2023 - Quarterly Update

Project status update

Where we’re at

As you’ve no doubt seen, this summer has been a flurry of construction activity on the new Stuart Lake Hospital. We’ve seen walls go up, roads paved, and a building come to life. The new hospital is now fully enclosed, and the work has shifted to items such as interior wall steel studs, backing and boarding, electrical, IT infrastructure, fire protection, and more.

While there is still a good deal of work to go before the building is ready for patients, it’s easy to see what an improvement the new facility is going to be for residents, staff, and medical staff.

Outside of the building, the Stuart Lake Hospital project team has been working with Graham Construction on the 100% Design Submittal to address concerns and ensure that any deficiencies and issues can be resolved before we open the building.

Project schedule

Despite how good the building is looking already, there is still a great deal of work to happen before we’re ready to bring patients into the building. However, the SLH project is still on track to open for patients late 2024 with the project being completed in 2025.

With the design work nearly wrapped up, much of the project team focus has shifted to transition planning, which is a complicated process that will take nearly a year to figure out. This work ahead of time will ensure that we’re able to hit the ground running in the new facility once we open the doors.

Once we open the doors on the new facility, the next steps will be the demolition of the old hospital, and the creation of new parking and culturally significant gardens and landscaping in its stead. If all goes according to plans, that work will be complete in 2025 and the new Stuart Lake Hospital will be ready to serve the community for years to come.

Site tour

In August, we were privileged to be able to offer a site tour to staff and medical staff of the new Stuart Lake Hospital. Graham Construction took everyone on a detailed walkthrough of the new building to show them where the new features would be located.

Despite the unfinished state of the inside, all those on the tour were in awe of the size of the new Stuart Lake Hospital compared to the current site. We look forward to hosting more of these tours in the future and sharing regular progress photos of the work happening on site.

Next steps and upcoming milestones

Engagement

Although the design portion of the hospital is nearly complete, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be engaging with staff and the public any further. Staff and community have an important role to play in the work still to come. Transition planning is a vital component of the project, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on what that should look like.

We will contiue to engage throughout the lifetime of the project through Let’s Talk, our established working groups, as well as other virtual and in-person events.

Dakelh language working group

In addition to the work going on inside, we are also actively working on ways to make sure that the facility is culturally safe and welcome. One way, among many, that we’re doing that is by creating a Dakelh language working group comprised of Elders and language experts from the surrounding Indigenous communities.

In the spirit of reconciliation and cultural safety, and to reflect the territory on which the hospital is located, a number of patient and staff signs throughout the facility will have Dakelh translations. We look forward to sharing these with you in the future.

For more information

Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement Project Let’s Talk

Let’s Talk is our one-stop shop for everything related to the Stuart Lake Hospital project. Not only does this site have regular project updates, but it is also a place where you can provide feedback and thoughts on the project. We are always looking to connect and to hear from you! Please stay in touch and keep your questions coming.

Stuart Lake Hospital Let’s Talk

Employment opportunities at Stuart Lake Hospital

A new hospital with more beds, expanded lab and diagnostic imaging, and a Primary Care Clinic, means a great number of positions to fill. A variety of positions will be available both in the hospital as well as the Primary Care Clinic which will be housed in the new hospital such as:

Licensed Practical Nurse
Registered Nurse
Housekeeper
Cook
Food Service Worker
Facility Maintenance
Imaging Technician

Medical Lab Technologist
Care Aid
Laboratory Clerk
Primary Care Assistant
Social Worker
Occupational Therapist

Medical Office Assistant
Community Health Worker
Physicians
Nurse Practitioner
Rehab Assistant
And many more!

To start your education journey to a job in health care, connect with employment contacts at Northern Health Recruitment (nhjobs@northernhealth.ca) or Megan Hunter, Health Services Administrator – Omineca (megan.hunter@northernhealth.ca).

Employment opportunities and additional recruitment contacts

Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement Project construction camera

We’ve installed a construction camera that you can access to see what’s going on at the site! Follow along to see the progress and watch the new hospital take shape.

Click on the link on the Let’s Talk Page (or here: Stuart Lake Hospital Construction Camera) for a bird’s eye view of construction anytime you like.

Contact us directly

For questions, feedback, or to get added to the distribution list for these updates, feel free to reach out directly to us through Mark Hendricks, Communications Lead, Capital Projects, at:

Mark.Hendricks@northernhealth.ca or at LetsTalkSLH@northernhealth.ca

October Site Tour

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As the fall months go by and the site gets ready for the winter, work continues to progress both inside and outside at a rapid pace. Over the winter, work will continue inside to continue bringing the building to life.
The main entrance to the new Stuart Lake Hospital will provide a welcoming and inclusive first point of contact for patients, family, and staff to Stuart Lake Hospital.
Drywall is progressing throughout the hospital including in the inpatient rooms. In the new Stuart Lake Hospital, all inpatient rooms will be single rooms with a dedicated washroom.
The family gathering space will have access to a landscaped outdoor area with covered seating.
In addition to the landscaped outdoor space near the family gathering space, the long-term care area as well as the paliative care room will have an outdoor healing garden with plants local to the region.
In addition to all the work going on inside, one of the most beautiful components of the hospital is the region itself. This view is taken from within the hospital. Natural light and windows are a big component of the design and views like these will be common throughout the facility.
Site Photo: March 2023

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What a difference a few weeks make! Structural steel installation is well underway at the Stuart Lake Hospital construction site. It's a massive difference from this time last year, and even from our last post about the elevator shaft. It's clear to see we'll have a new hospital before too long.
Less visually-impactful than the steel installation, but equally importantly, water- and damp-proofing continues and the underslab and foundation insulation is progressing in line with below grade services and utilities.
It's a busy place for crews working on-site, and an exciting time for Fort St. James!
Mysterious Orange Object

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View of the SLH site from Junkers St.
Folks with their eyes open for change at the Stuart Lake Hospital site will have noticed a mysterious orange object smack in the middle of construction. Right now it's a curious, brightly coloured beacon against a winter landscape, but the orange object, once unwrapped and revealed, will be recognizable as the elevator shaft, a vital constructional element of the new hospital.

View of the construction area from SLH deck
Elevator shafts act as a structural backbone to a building to which other elements connect. The elevator in the Stuart Lake Hospital allows access to the basement level, where the electrical and maintenance areas are found, as well as the Morgue and the Quiet Room.

Up close and personal with the elevator shaft
Watch as the hospital continues to take shape, and stay tuned here for more information on the specific areas of the hospital and what you can look forward to once the new build is complete.
February 2023 Quarterly Update

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Where we’re at
Despite the ups and downs in temperature, through snow and wind, and on the occasional welcome sunny day, construction continues to advance at the site of the new Stuart Lake Hospital. Staff, patients, and visitors to the hospital have seen great change from the windows, as we’ve gone from a spruce forest to a forest of rebar and concrete. From a hole in the ground back in the fall to foundations, walls and miles of orange tarp, the replacement hospital is becoming a reality.
Weather hoarding and tarping of work surfaces for concrete pours continues, and waterproofing and damp proofing work is ongoing. Suspended slab pours began in November and continue when the weather permits. Despite a closure from December 24 to January 4, progress is right on track with below grade utilities and site services infrastructure. Structural Steel fabrication is underway and we happily anticipate site work starting mid-February.

Project schedule
Like all project schedules, timelines can be impacted by any number of factors and thus are subject to change. That said, the SLH replacement project is on time in terms of overall construction and design.
The 100% Design Submittal has been under review by Northern Health since its submittal in November 2022. Graham recently delivered a supplement 100% Design Submittal which has been reviewed by NH and sent back with comments.
If all goes as planned, the current schedule sees the building substantially watertight by this fall. This means we’ll be on schedule for the opening and operation of the new hospital in 2024. This will be followed by the demolition of the old hospital, and the creation of new parking and culturally significant gardens and landscaping in its stead, and project completion in 2025!

Next steps and upcoming milestones
Engagement
New renderings from the 100% Design Submittal are expected in the next few weeks so we can better picture the hospital as it will appear in real life. Renderings are subject to change, but as engagement ramps up in the new year, opportunities will arise for the public to take a peek at the prospective hospital design. It will also allow us to hear what you say, gather feedback, and deliver it back to the project team.
We are very excited for 2023’s community engagement opportunities. Some of these will include:
- Public displays at multiple locations in Fort St. James where people can view the renderings and plans for the new hospital
- A joint event at Fort St. James Senior Secondary School with NH Recruitment to introduce students to employment pathways in health and the many opportunities that will exist in the new hospital
- Open houses for health care workers and the public (dates and venues yet to be determined) in Nak’azdli and Fort St. James. These will be a highlight of our engagement year and a chance to connect in person
- Health and education fairs, community or employment event? We are available! And we’ll travel. Get in touch if you’d like us to present to your organization or be present at your event.
For more information
Employment Opportunities at SLH
A new hospital with more beds, expanded lab and diagnostic imaging, and a Primary Care Clinic means a great number of positions to fill. Jobs in housekeeping, food services and maintenance will be available, as well as technician positions, nurses and care aids, to mention only a few.
With construction underway, we are thinking about how to staff the new facility to ensure that health needs of the community are met. We are also thinking about the benefits of staffing the hospital from the community – some people are credentialed and ready to go into the positions available, and some are looking to start down the path to employment, and a new hospital is a great opportunity for all.
To start your education journey to a job in health care, connect with employment contacts at Northern Health Recruitment or contact the Stuart Lake Hospital Site Manager. Go to Let’s talk to discover what jobs are available and how to access the education and support to get you there.
Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement Project Let’s Talk
Let’s Talk is our one-stop shop for everything related to the Stuart Lake Hospital project. Not only does this site have regular project updates, but it is also a place where you can provide feedback and thoughts on the project. We are always looking to connect and to hear from you! Please stay in touch and keep your questions coming.
Stuart Lake Hospital Let’s Talk
Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement Project construction camera
We’ve installed a construction camera that you can access to see what’s going on at the site! Follow along to see the progress and watch the new hospital take shape.
Click on the link on the Let’s Talk Page (or here: Stuart Lake Hospital Construction Camera) for a bird’s eye view of construction anytime you like.
Contact us directly
For questions, feedback, or to get added to the distribution list for these updates, feel free to reach out directly to us at:

LetsTalkSLH@northernhealth.ca
Site Photo: January 2023

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Although I spend as much time in Fort St. James and Nak'azdli Whut'en as I can, for the most part I'm based on Lheidli T'enneh territory in Prince George, and when I just can't take any more of the city, I sneak a peek at the construction camera to see what the weather's doing and where we're at with construction. It's a pleasure to see the lake in the background and the trees that surround the site, and it's fascinating to see a hospital being built from the ground up. It's amazing to have a front row seat on change.
Little by little, with the work and organization of many, a hospital is growing, and it's no paltry project - even if Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace will have 78 beds to our 27, it's no less impactful for our community. How we access health care, whether it's for a check-up at the Primary Care Clinic or for emergency services, where we go for help is changing, and that's a big deal.
This year, we'll bring you along for the view. We'll be posting a snapshots of the hospital project to keep you in the loop. You can join me in the front row to watch the new Stuart Lake Hospital appear, concrete pour by concrete pour, until it's time for the patients and staff to move in and for the old hospital to come down. Come along for the ride! And send your feedback. We'd love to hear from you: LetsTalkSLH@northernhealth.ca

Stuart Lake Hospital Replacement Project on a sunny Sunday morning in January 2023