SFU Surrey Medical School to Rise at Old Rec Centre Site
British Columbia’s long-awaited new medical school will officially take shape in Surrey, with its permanent home to be built at the former North Surrey Recreation Centre site.
Applications for the first class at Simon Fraser University’s medical school opened on Tuesday (October 14), with 48 students set to begin studies in August 2026 at the university’s current Surrey campus on University Drive and 102 Avenue.
The new facility — part of the Centre Block development — will rise just across the street and is expected to break ground in late 2026, with completion scheduled for 2030. According to the Office of the Premier, enrollment will expand each year until reaching 120 students by 2035.
The 12-storey complex will dedicate eight floors to the medical school, housing classrooms, clinical skills spaces, and research labs. The project will also feature a 49-space child-care centre, an outpatient medical clinic, and shared community amenities.
Announcing the milestone at SFU Surrey, Premier David Eby said the medical school will “train the next generation of doctors right here in Surrey, where they are urgently needed.”
“The new SFU medical school, alongside the new Surrey hospital and B.C. Cancer Centre, will make this city a hub of innovative, high-quality health care,” Eby said.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke called the announcement “a transformational moment in Surrey’s history,” noting that the city faces one of the province’s sharpest physician shortages.
“We have roughly 59 family doctors per 100,000 residents in Surrey — less than half the number in Vancouver,” Locke said. “This new school is a crucial step toward addressing that gap.”
Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, Jessie Sunner, who grew up near the new site and is an SFU Surrey alumna, said the project represents an investment “in our people, our city, and our province.”
“For the first time in generations, future doctors will be able to live, learn, train, and serve right here in Surrey,” Sunner said. “This will be transformative for our health care system and for families who deserve care close to home.”
Councillor and mayoral candidate Linda Annis welcomed the move but urged the city to ensure new graduates remain in Surrey after completing their studies.
“More than 100,000 people in Surrey don’t have a family doctor,” she said. “We need incentives that encourage new doctors to stay and practice where they graduate.”
The medical school — the first in Western Canada in over 50 years — is being developed through collaboration between the Province, SFU, City of Surrey, First Nations Health Authority, Fraser Health, and the medical community.
Applications are open now at sfu.ca/medicine.
In November, Surrey’s major business associations — including the Surrey & White Rock Board of Trade, local Business Improvement Associations, and the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce — will host a luncheon on the economic opportunities the school will bring. Tickets are available for $75 at swrbot.com.
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