There is still no start date for construction at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital despite hopes to begin work soon. Infrastructure Minister Benoit Charette says the money is there, but planning is still incomplete. The aging hospital is in desperate need of renovations, and advocates have voiced concerns about constant delays. “At this moment, we don’t have the infrastructure to welcome the new construction. We have to have water, infrastructure to build this hospital. So we will do that first, we will manage the whole site first,” Charette said. A doctor at the hospital who is pushing the government to move forward with the project says he is deeply disappointed and says the government keeps asking to scale down the project, but there is little left to cut. “We already scaled down the project a lot so when the government says you have to shave more, you can’t do that. The next thing is the emergency exits,” said Dr. François Marquis, head of the ICU at the hospital. “This is where we are. There’s no way you can cut more. The project is absolutely lean.” Dr. Marquis says each month’s delay costs taxpayers $10 million in paying for cost increases and the salaries of people doing nothing while they wait for a new version of the project to be developed.
