Skyrocketing costs and construction delays on Montreal's two new superhospitals have incited further controversy over a project that has been beset with difficulties since its conception.
The Quebec Liberal Party announced on March 30 that construction on the future buildings of the McGill University Health Centre and the University of Montreal's Hospital Centre (CHUM) will cost at least $1.6 billion more than projections made by former Health Minister Philippe Couillard in 2006. The total cost of the project has ballooned to $4.7 billion, from an initial estimate of $2.6 billion.
"We cannot avoid these cost increases," said Benoit Labonté, the mayor of the borough of Ville-Marie and the leader of Montreal's municipal opposition party. "If we go back in history, these [hospitals] were first planned back in 1996-97, so it's normal that a project that will last over 20 years will have difficulties planning exact final costs and accounting for inflation. We have to be very careful about controlling the costs, but it's not surprising that the price has changed."
The target completion date for the CHUM superhospital, which will be built on the site of the current St. Luc Hospital, has been pushed back by five years to December 2018. The MUHC is scheduled to begin construction in early 2010, and be operational by 2013.
Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc claimed that the cost increases and delays to the CHUM project were caused by an expansion in the planned size of the hospital. The government has also set aside a $650-million fund to account for inflation and unforeseen "risks."
"The important message today is that, as a responsible government, we want … to give the costs before construction for the sake of transparency," Bolduc told the Montreal Gazette.
The projected cost of the two hospitals doesn't include tens of millions of dollars that have been spent on research and consultants' fees.
Quebec Auditor General Renaud Lachance released a report last Wednesday criticizing both the MUHC and CHUM for "not being in conformity with sound management" practices and ignoring spending limits. Arthur Porter, director of the MUHC, responded by claiming that "industry-specific inflation" was solely responsible for the $700 million increase in the MUHC budget.
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