Accused of throwing a wrench in the works of the long-awaited renovation of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal, the CAQ government argues that another 15 per cent cut to its renovation budget is necessary, specifically in the administrative sector.<\/p>\n
Health Minister Sonia B\u00e9langer stated on Thursday that the \u201coptimization\u201d would affect the administrative part of the project\u2014the freight dock, the entrance hall, administrative spaces, etc.\u2014but not the \u201cclinical plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the CAQ government tabled its budget on Wednesday, opposition parties criticized the fact that the facility in eastern Montreal has not yet moved from the planning stage to the implementation stage in the Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI), even though $2.3 billion is earmarked for hospital construction and renovation.<\/p>\n
Built in 1954, Maisonneuve-Rosemont is the \u201csymbol of the dilapidation\u201d of Quebec\u2019s hospitals, according to the official opposition\u2019s parliamentary leader, Andr\u00e9 Fortin.<\/p>\n
During a parliamentary committee hearing on Thursday morning, Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji noted that in September 2023, B\u00e9langer\u2019s predecessor, Christian Dub\u00e9, had stated that everything was ready and that calls for tenders would be issued in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
But since then, work has not progressed on this project, which could exceed $5 billion according to circulating estimates.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are throwing a wrench in the works of this project,\u201d Derraji told B\u00e9langer.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the project office is costing an additional $10 million for every month of delay, he lamented. Emergency funding of $300 million has even been requested.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a hospital infested with rats, ants, and bats (\u2026), this delay risks having a budgetary impact,\u201d he denounced.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m telling you that Maisonneuve-Rosemont is a priority,\u201d B\u00e9langer assured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will have the necessary funding to complete the (planning) phase,\u201d she assured, adding that \u201cthe budget isn\u2019t an open-ended allocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, during the closed-door budget presentation, the Minister responsible for Infrastructure Benoit Charette, had specified that \u201cpreparatory work\u201d would begin in the coming months to prepare the site that will host the future hospital.<\/p>\n
Water system work will also be undertaken, he had indicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a major step forward,\u201d Charette had argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Accused of throwing a wrench in the works of the long-awaited renovation of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-548016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}