VICTORIA – New Democrats are calling on the B.C. Liberal government to reveal why the controversial report by the Burnaby Hospital Community Consultation Committee has yet to be released, despite being two months past its original deadline.

“The consultation committee originally promised that the report would be released to the Fraser Health Authority by the end of September and yet two months later, we haven’t seen a thing,” said New Democrat health critic Mike Farnworth.

“Premier Christy Clark and the minister of health need to answer for the status of the report and address what’s causing the delay. We already know the committee was created purely for political reasons. The Liberal government wanted to appear to be taking action as they thought it could win them a seat in the next election. One has to wonder what they're up to by delaying the report further.”

After the consultation committee stated their intention to submit their report to the Fraser Health Authority by late September, a series of leaked emails between Liberal party operatives, government staffers and Liberal MLAs revealed the submission deadline had changed. The new deadline would be in October, in time to present it to Premier Clark at the Liberal party convention in Whistler. Instead of presenting it to the FHA, it is now going to the Ministry of Health.

“People who put their faith in the community consultation process have already been let down by the Liberals’ blatant mismanagement of the process. They did a botched job of it to begin with by putting their party’s needs ahead of those in the community and they’re continuing to disregard the rights of the public by not tabling the report,” said Farnworth.