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A brand new 30,000-square-foot community health clinic in Deer Lake is stuck in limbo more than two months after construction ended at the facility in August.
Concrete slabs are currently blocking the two access points to the Deer Lake Community Health Centre’s parking lot as a local developer, the town and the province are mired in a dispute over the appropriate way to connect the fully built clinic to the local road network.
Meanwhile, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) is paying about $200,000 a month in rent for the empty building.
Two new stretches of pavement lead to the clinic, which is located in a development area between the Humber River and the Trans-Canada-Highway:
An extension of Humber View Drive, a residential street;A connection to Bennett Avenue, at a point near where that street meets the TCH.
However, despite the clinic being built, both roadways are blocked off by the company that paved them, Marine Contractors, which is waiting for the town to assume ownership — and any related liabilities — for the new pavement.
Deer Lake Mayor Dean Ball blamed the hold-up on a months-long fight with the province.
Deer Lake Mayor Dean Ball said his municpality, the province and a local developer are embroiled in a long-time dispute regarding road connections to a new community health clinic. (Colleen Connors/CBC)
He said the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure won’t allow the Bennett Avenue connection to open because it directly links the development area to the TCH at a busy, narrow section of the highway that could soon be reconfigured.
He also said the town isn’t ready to assume liability for the Humber View Drive connection because the larger subdivision project through which it runs is still under development.
Ball also said he’s uncomfortable with NLHS opening a new clinic with only one access road.
“We want that clinic open. We need that clinic open,” Ball said Wednesday. “But I don’t want to make a bad issue worse by having a one way in and a one way out in that new facility. And then we got to take the ownership of that subdivision, when it’s unfinished.”
Province slaps back
In a statement, Transportation and Infrastructure pointed to confusion over a traffic study for the development area.
“The developer [Marine Contractors] has suggested that a traffic study related to a potential future highway connection is preventing the road from being assumed by the town,” reads a statement provided by Transportation and Infrastructure spokesperson Janelle Simms.
WATCH | The lease is costing the health authority about $200,000 a month:
Months after completion, roads are keeping a new clinic in Deer Lake closed
A new community health clinic in Deer Lake is currently sitting empty as a dispute continues on how it should be connected to local roads. As Radio-Canada’s Patrick Butler reports, the lease of the building, which has been completed for more than two months, is costing Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services about $200,000 a month.
“However, Transportation and Infrastructure has confirmed that this condition does not restrict subdivision development or municipal road assumption, provided there is no direct access to the Trans-Canada Highway.”
Adam Buckle, the chief financial officer at Marine Contractors, declined an interview request on behalf of the company. So, too, did the area’s MHA, Tourism Minister Mike Goosney.
TCH access concerns
Ball said discussions between his municipality and the province regarding local road connections are top of mind for several businesses in the area, as the province mulls twinning a section of the highway that bisects a business-filled hub in the town of 4,700 people.
The highway currently narrows as it reaches Deer Lake, forcing motorists to slow as they approach local service stations and restaurants.
“Direct access to the Trans-Canada Highway was never a requirement for this facility and was not a factor in site selection,” said the statement from Transportation and Works. “Like many health-care facilities throughout the province, the clinic is intended to be accessed through the existing municipal road network.”
Opening date for centre unknown
Despite repeated requests, NLHS did not respond to questions regarding the new centre’s opening date.
The former Liberal government announced the location of the community health centre in March 2024. Construction began seven months later.
“A new community health centre in Deer Lake will increase access to health care services for residents and consolidate all existing health care services of the region, including the Deer Lake-White Bay Family Care Team, into one location,” read an October 2024 press release from the Department of Health and Community Services.
The building’s lease costs about $2.5 million per year, according to the same release.