Dr kim chi the vice president and chief medical officer for bc cancer and we're here to talk about an exciting addition to our early cancer diagnosis and treatment programs at a time when we're dealing with the challenges of covid19 it's easy to forget that families right across british columbia are grappling with cancer diagnosis cancer doesn't wait for global pandemics and we know that early detection saves lives.
it means more treatment options it means faster recovery it means better outcomes and that is why minister dix and his team have been working with bc cancer to expand cancer diagnosis programs across british columbia including most recently the announcement of regional centers regional cancer centers at the new surrey hospital as well as the upgrade in burnaby at the burnaby hospital in addition to that very exciting in both kelowna and victoria at bc cancer centers these the expansion and the state-of-the-art pet ct scanners that mean that people who need these important diagnostic services are not traveling into the lower mainland are able to stay in their region in their community to get the diagnosis.
They need and to continue on that important work we're very happy to announce today a new lung cancer screening program the first in canada this program has been needed for a long long time six british columbians die each day from lung cancer it's the most common cause of cancer death in canada and worldwide but right now seventy percent of all lung cancers are diagnosed in advanced stages our new lung care screening our new lung cancer screening program will establish clinics right across the province and take advantage of our existing ct technologies program development will begin immediately and the program will be fully operational by the spring of 2022 once it's up and running these clinics will see up to 20 000 patients a year and i want to thank bc cancer particularly for the work that they've done to continue innovating continue to give hope to families and individuals right across british columbia and indeed across canada because of the ground breaking work being done in our province these changes give people hope give people opportunity to get early treatments.
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Because they got early diagnosis and nothing's more important when you're given the call about cancer to have some hope that that diagnosis has been done early enough so that treatment regimes can be put in place to protect you to protect your family and indeed at the end of the day to save lives this is an exciting initiative and one that i'm very very proud of and particularly i want to thank dr kim chi who will be speaking in a moment and minister dix for being so aggressive on this diagnostic transformation starting here in british columbia and i believe will go right across the country so i'll pass the uh the microphone over to minister dix uh somewhere in the lower mainland thank you very much it's such an honor to do this today i am so fired up uh about the opportunities that working with the exceptional people in our health care system provide for everyone in bc it is this this transformation today will literally make the difference in uh thousands of lives in the coming decades in bc and it shows british columbia bc cancer leading the way i want to thank dr kim and she his team at bc cancer who exemplify i think the spirit that everyone in healthcare the people in the hundreds of thousands who worked in healthcare in bc have shown during the covenanting uh pandemic one of the notes in the premiere will develop cancer in their lifetime in 2018 an estimated 28 000 cancers were diagnosed in bc and in 10 years that number will increase dramatically to close to 40 000. lung breasts colorectal and prostate cancer are the most common types of cancer in canada and account for almost half of cancer cases more people die of lung cancer than colon breast and prostate cancer combined 3 300d cases estimated in 2020 2500 yes and currently lesson one inside of my cancer patient live five or more years this is heart-wrenching news for families when it comes but it's also something we can do something about the goal of lung cancer screening that the premier's just announced is to detect lung cancer at its earliest stages and it's been estimated through clinical studies that the screening we're talking about can reduce mortality by 20 to 25 70 percent of all lung cancers are diagnosed at an advanced phase the premier said when symptoms are already present early detection will result into survival rate the target population for this new cancer screening program is approximately in total 90 000 people in bc these are adults between the ages of 55 and 74 that currently spoke have a heavy smoking history or quit smoking within the past 15 years uh program development will begin immediately and the program will be fully operational by the spring of 2021. the this test the the cancer test the screening test is a low-dose ct scan which takes minutes and is not painful and our 67 ct scanners will be building out this network um in dc conduct about 800 000 screens every year as you know and as people know you see current matters between presidential breast cervical and colon cancers we have been leaders in the past our screening program and for their cervical cancer dates to the 1950s in bc we were first in canada for that our breast cancer screening program dates for the 1980s 1988.
You were first in canada for that and now we will be first in canada to have a lung cancer screening program but i think we will leave the country i'm confident this will protect cancer early and improve mortality rates we are fortunate to have strong partnerships in the canadian partnership against cancer and the decent cancer foundation which is contributing 50 000 in 2020 20 20 21 800 000 in 2021. the bc cancer foundation and stimulus and her team just do this exceptional job and suddenly you can target for the lung screening program of about a million dollars i'm happy to say because the generosity of british economy has exceeded their federation goal by 750 thousand dollars they raised the wealthy 1.75 million to go towards vital equipment and the startup cost of the lung cancer screening program congratulations and a special shout out if you can imagine this there is one million dollars all on her own this is the cancer screening program is one of recent actions the government's taking to invest in early cancer diagnosis and treatment you spoke of the expansion of investment in bc cancer centers throughout the problem with new state of the art pept scanners in kelowna and victoria this is a great day for our program and we are very very proud that this will be the first one fantasy screening program in the country and part of the reason for that is the extraordinary leadership of e.t cancer our chief medical officer or leader of uc campus dr tim linchi and i'm honored to introduce him now one in two british columbians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime and of these cancer diagnoses lung cancer is the most common and most deadliest six british colombians will die every day from lung cancer prevention and early detection are the keys to changing this statistic and that is why i'm so pleased to be here today to take part in this groundbreaking first in canada announcement by introducing lung cancer screening in british columbia and linking these efforts with prevention by smoking cessation programs we can decrease mortality increase the chance of cure and improve survival from lung cancer lives will be changed because of today's announcement cancer research is a big part of what we do at bc cancer and lung cancer screening is no exception thanks to the leadership of dr stephen lam at bc cancer who is an internationally recognized leader in the field of early detection of lung cancer we have been running a clinical trial on lung screening for high-risk individuals for several years and we are confident we have all the tools we need to successfully implement this province-wide program today's announcement has been years in the making and there are many many people to thank while i won't be able to recognize everyone that deserves to be there are some that i would particularly like to acknowledge dr lam and his team and all the people who have participated in the lung cancer screening trial this is helping us get to today's announcement all the oncologists and staff at bc cancer who specialize in treating in lung cancer i know they join me in celebrating today's announcement lisa khan bc cancer's executive director for screening and prevention and her whole team who have developed the plan to implement the lung cancer screening program in the province the canadian partnership against cancer cpac who have advocated at a national level for implementation of lung cancer screening we are proud to stand alongside cpac as bc becomes the first province to announce an organized lung cancer screening program the bc cancer foundation who is the fundraising partner of bc cancer who have been supporting lung cancer research in british columbia for decades they have run a successful program campaign to help fund lung cancer screening in bc i can't thank enough our foundation and all their generous donors across the province for all they do to help change the outcomes for people facing cancer in bc and finally today would not be possible without the leadership and investment of the government of british columbia premier horgan and minister dix as a result of their leadership bringing us today's announcement the lives of many british colombians will be saved in all the years to come i'm pleased to be able to introduce our next speaker shannon gull who will be joining us from her phone from her home in kelowna today shannon has lung cancer and currently receiving treatment at bc cancer kelowna she unfortunately could not travel to be here in person with us due to the covet 19 risk which is a particular concern for vulnerable populations like those with cancer shannon will share a few words about her lung cancer journey but also how she channeled her energies into raising funds for the lung cancer screening program in bc all the while going through cancer treatment as minister dix mentioned shannon along with her husband have raised 1 million dollars for the bc cancers foundation lung cancer screaming program shannon our heartfelt thanks to you and your truly inspirational efforts over to you all the while thank you my name is as minister dix mentioned shannon along with her husband have raised one million dollars for the bc cancers foundation lung cancer screening program shannon are heartfelt thanks to you and your truly inspirational efforts over to you thank you dr chi my name is shannon gall and i'm calling from kelowna this morning i'd like to acknowledge that the land i'm standing on is the traditional unseated territory of the sea elks okanogan peoples i am one of thousands of british colombians who is currently facing cancer just over two years ago i was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer the diagnosis was devastating to our family and came as a shock as i was only 45 years old at the time and i've never smoked i received radiation treatment at bc cancer in kelowna and had surgery to remove a large tumor my biopsy was sent to vancouver where a dna analysis found that i had a genetic mutation called egfr i was enrolled in the personalized oncogenomics program and started taking a targeted drug therapy every day the average stage 4 lung cancer patient only survives a few months but i'm still here two years later and as every cancer patient with advanced disease knows every day counts while i struggle to process why i have lung cancer i was motivated to do everything i could to make something positive come from my situation i decided to get involved and spoke at a bc cancer foundation luncheon meeting in kelowna in 2019 where a record-breaking amount of money was raised for genomics research however cancer doesn't stop so when i heard that the bc cancer foundation was looking to raise and i decided that we would try to raise one million dollars to help launch this initiative we had met at phillips hagar and north in 1994 and clayton still works at this bc based wealth management firm most people know it simply as phnn clayton and i made a donation and challenged past and present colleagues to beach to beat or match us in the first couple of weeks over five hundred thousand dollars was raised within two months we hit our one million dollar fundraising goal and are so grateful to everyone at ph n for making this happen the lung cancer screening program will benefit thousands of british colombians it could benefit you it will probably benefit my children something i'm so grateful for clayton and i were inspired by people we know who have faced cancer people in our family bob hager one of the original founders of phnn and like every canadian we were inspired by terry fox and his incredible legacy i would like to thank premier horgan and minister dix for inviting me to speak about the advancements in cancer treatment that the government of bc is getting behind i'm thankful to bc cancer and the bc cancer foundation for changing outcomes for cancer patients in british columbia launching a province wide lung cancer screening program is going to save lives i'd like to now turn it back over to premier horgan thank you so much shannon and clayton for your tireless work to make sure that your diagnosis has a meaning for many many more british colombians we're all very proud of you and you are now the inspiration you talked about in your remarks so thank you so much and for thinking about you today i'm also a cancer survivor bladder cancer and it was early detection early diagnosis that led to positive outcomes for me this is available to many many countless british columbians but not to many many others this lung cancer early detection program will save lives it will transform families and i'm so very very proud of the work that bc cancer does every single day but in this instance to lead canada yet again as we did with other cancers is very inspirational so thanks everyone for participating today and i'll now turn the uh floor over to uh to george and he'll take questions on today's announcement and other issues just a reminder for media participating this morning please hit star one to make sure that you're in the queue to ask a question we will start with rob buffum from ctv rob your line is now open okay thank you premier my question uh relates to a fall election as you know there's been a lot of speculation that there might be a fall election that speculation is heated up in the past several days um so i guess i'll just ask you point blank are you going to call a full election well as you know rob we are a minority government we have been uh for the past uh three and a quarter years uh and we've been preparing uh for the eventuality of an election since day one and i expect all other political parties have been doing that as well today we're announcing a transformative change in how we diagnose lung cancers in british columbia that will lead to breakthroughs across the country later in the week we'll be talking about our recovery plan minister james and i and i'm going to continue to focus on the here and the now what can we do today to make life better for british columbians what can we do today to keep british columbians safe that's what people have asked me to do and i'm going to continue doing that follow-up rob um yeah i guess i'm wondering um you recently polls indicated that you were the most popular premier in the in the country uh people seem to be approving of the way the government handled the pandemic thus far what are your thoughts on or what do you say to people who would be upset that an election would be called as numbers surge during the pandemic and you worry that that would you know adversely affect the goodwill that your government has built up and would hurt you at the polls well again i i just have to respond as i just did and as i have been since these questions started a few weeks ago my number one priority is the well-being of british columbians and uh i that may well sound stale to uh the people asking the questions but it is fresh every day for me it is a privilege and an honor to have this job i was on bc ferries over the weekend talking to people physically distanced with masks i have to say that the transport canada decision to disregard the pandemic and not grant an exemption to bc ferries so that we can continue to keep people safe is profoundly disappointing to me it was a common sense request that was responded to with a rigid answer from transport canada so these are the types of things that matter to british columbians that's what i certainly heard over the weekend those who have had a cancer diagnosis will very much want to hear about what we're talking about today shannon's point that this is a genetic predisposition in her case everything we can do to help future generations starts today and that's how i'm quite frankly that's how i address every day i get up in the morning i come to work and i do my level best and i'm going to do that tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that next we have tim ford victoria buzz tim please go ahead thank you very much premier the green party will be announcing their leader this afternoon with regards to your confidence and supply agreement last week you said i know that british columbians want me to focus on 2020 and beyond rather than looking backward to a relationship i had with the zen leader of the green party and his colleagues uh in your view does the appointment of a new leader change your government's approach to working in the framework of casa no i i wish uh whoever emerges today is uh the leader of the green party all the best uh this is challenging work uh and i i know that whoever becomes the leader of the green party we'll have a task ahead of them again my job is to work uh to make sure that british columbians are safe that our economy can continue to grow and that's what i'll be uh focusing on uh i did say last week and it remains true today uh when casa was contemplated when it was created we did not think that a global pandemic was something that we would have to consider the situation today is not the situation last last year or certainly not 2017. so i have to look at the inputs i get every day the briefings i get from professional public servants from the business community from organized labor from not-for-profits all of the component parts of british columbia and although the green party and the ndp and the liberal party and the conservative party are part of that fabric uh there's much more to british columbia than the political machinations that we're talking about here and that's that's my preoccupation what are british columbians need and how can i deliver on that tim do you have a follow-up yes just uh i know that we're kind of teasing a lot of election stuff today but uh i wanted to ask about uh two high-profile announcements for candidates uh who are vying to replace carol james in her writing uh first we've heard from stephanie pappak and now today from grace lore do you have any thoughts on who you'd like to see taking on the minister uh in her writing uh um no one's taking on carol is resigning at the end of this term for health reasons uh i will miss carol james more than i can possibly say not just because of her extraordinary competence and compassion but we are our dear close friends and uh i'm going to miss her greatly and that's when i think about victoria beacon hill i think of carol james i think everyone thinks of carol james she's lived there forever raised her family raised numerous other people's children and uh that's that's what i think about when i think of victoria beacon hill with respect to nominations all political parties will have to do that they do that to have in the past they will in the future and robust discussion and debate is always best next we have richard zusman global news richard please go ahead you didn't really answer rob's first question and i know that's by design but have you come around to the fact are you comfortable now with having a fall election yes or no i'm comfortable uh today announcing uh a first in canada i'm going to be comfortable later in the week talking about our plan to get bc's economy back up and running focusing on people focusing on businesses focusing on communities those are the those are my preoccupations and i realized that what i say will either stoke or dampen speculation but i i just i've answered this question many many times we've always been ready for an election campaign and i'm going to just keep working until uh that time arrives follow up richard on education you know we have smoke here on the southern vancouver island uh and in uh metro today and the bctf sent out a tweet saying that teachers should stay home uh if uh they're concerned about the smoke and about the precautions around covet that often call for kids to go outside like are you concerned about the tf asking members to stay home and what sort of disruption this could have on the school system well those decisions are made by local authorities we have elected school boards who have superintendents of education they have administrators in classrooms in schools across the province it's not just the island in the lower mainland that are affected by the poor air quality today and i believe that just like a snow day those are local decisions and i would leave it to those people who deliver the education service who have employees teachers support staff and others that they'll make those decisions based on the best interests of their communities that and that's as it should be i would also add well well that we're on the subject of air quality i want to say that we currently have 40 british columbia wildfire fighters in the united states just south of grand forks working hard to control fire there another 208 are ready to deploy in the coming days they'll be going to washington and oregon and another 200 are ready to deploy over the next 10 days and i i want to raise this because over 800 volunteers put their hands up to run into someone else's community someone else's fire to do what they can to make sure that people are safe and that just is extraordinary in my mind i my brother was a 35-year professional firefighter.
i know uh what impact that has on families when there is a major fire as we had uh in on the docks in on the waterfront in new westminster uh over the overnight uh so firefighters are so precious to us and the 800 british columbians said how can i help how can i go to the united states to keep people safe i think speaks volumes about our compassion and our commitment to helping each other i'm very proud of those individuals and i'm proud of all british colombians banding together in these very difficult extraordinarily difficult times next we have mary brooks mary your line is now open thanks hi premier um i'm looking at the um uh expression of condolences and so on across the country about elen cretchen passing away on the weekend and looking at the idea of how women are influential in politics and in your government you've made a point of having you know 50 50 in the cabinet and so on and and encouraging women to run for politics and what we're looking at in the case of the lynn christian is someone who worked behind the scenes so i'm just sort of wondering if you have a comment in all of that light on women in politics going forward well thank you mary for the question and certainly my condolences go to the cretchen family a loss of a woman who was behind the scenes as you say for decades working on behalf of of canadians i know i could not do what i do without my wife ellie i just couldn't and i and so i can't speak to the importance of family uh when it comes to politics but i can speak to the importance of having uh women participate in the front lines of politics and i'm very proud that uh not only are half of my cabinet colleagues men half of them women but the ndp caucus is fully half men and half women and it's also diverse in terms of orientation and diverse in terms of ethnic background and religious beliefs and i believe that that the reflection of british columbia the reflection of canada should be in all of our public institutions not just elected bodies but our professional public service law enforcement first responders all of our institutions should be as diverse as the communities that they represent and and i think that people like elaine krachan who has sacrificed so much to the fabric of canada needs to be uh recognized and grateful uh thanks to her for her lifetime of serving canadians with her husband and her family and she'll be greatly missed i know by the cretchens and it reminds us all that uh when we see political leaders whether they men or women in front of cameras as i am today i couldn't have got here this morning without ellie getting me out the door and i know that sounds trite but there's a whole lot more to getting out the door as everyone knows when you're going to work whatever you may do and i just could not do this without her mary do you have a follow-up um yes because of the covered economic impact they are saying that women have fallen behind by about 30 years in terms of having access to working in the economy partly because of lack of child care right now and also because most of the sectors hit by covid are where women are predominantly employed so i'm just wondering what your government is doing to make sure that women don't fall too far behind during covet i'm not sure about the the uh 30-year variable that you put there mary but i absolutely know that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic in terms of their uh the workforce but also uh we have since we formed government over three years ago have made child care a high priority in fact among our highest priorities because it is not just about caring for children critically important is as that is it's about ensuring that everyone can participate in the economy with increased costs it's important that there be often times absolutely essential that there be two incomes uh to keep food on the table and to keep the rent or the mortgage payments going and fundamental to that is child care and what we've seen during the pandemic is that child care is critical it's an essential service and vital to our functioning as a society so i i believe that we're going to conti i know we're going to continue to invest heavily in making sure there are more child care spaces we're training more early childhood educators and a host of other initiatives to make sure that women can fully participate in the workforce women in trades is an area that i know my colleague melanie mark is always focused on community benefit agreements which we put in place for some capital projects like the patella bridge the broadway the broadway skytrain line as well as highway one east of of kamloops is designed to make an opportunity for women to get into the trades non-traditional activities i was visited with a some electricians over the weekend in vancouver and and women in the trades is a key part of democratizing our workforce and making sure that all members of the community can participate and we're going to continue to focus on that because not only is it the right thing to do it's better for our economy that everyone participate and people realize their full potential getting the skills they need to be full participants and lastly we have andrea ross cbc andrea please go ahead hi um this is a question for dr kim chi i'm not sure if he's still on the line uh obviously everyone's concerned about the air quality right now with so much smoke from wildfires and considering lung cancer is already such a prevalent and deadly disease do you anticipate rates of lungs lung cancer and other respiratory problems increasing as a result of more severe and longer wildfire seasons in canada and the us and then to follow up on that perhaps for premier horgan is bc's health care system prepared for the costs and other impacts this could have so air quality air pollution have been related to cancers including lung cancers as well as other pulmonary ailments and so yes as global warming and global climate changes occur these will be problems for the future however i think today's announcement around lung cancer screening is an important part of early detection and preventing or and detecting cancers at an earlier stage where we can have increased chance of cure and improve survival you uh dr chi and i i would just add to that that of course we are building into everything we do in government through our clean bc initiative and addressing uh climate action here in bc that we're putting the resources in place to not just reduce emissions but to adapt to the new environment that we will all be working in uh what we know with absolute certainty is that as our climate changes we're going to see more uh wildfire seasons as we've had over the past number of years we're going to see more harsh winters and more intense summers not just here in british columbia but globally that's going to have an impact on supply chains on our food production and that's why as we talk about climate change it's not just about emission reduction as fundamental as that is that's the without that we have no success but we also have to build an economy we have to build our social infrastructure so that we can adapt to the future that we are going to inherit and that we're passing on uh to our future generations andrea do you have a follow-up
