No date set for design on new Corner Brook hospital

Health Minister John Haggie says the Newfoundland and Labrador government is making no promises on when a design will be completed for the long-discussed new hospital in Corner Brook, a project that's already chewed up $40 million. 

The province expects to spend $8.5 million this year on the hospital, but it's limited to planning and design. 

West Coast Morning4:28Hopes for Corner Brook's new hospital are still alive.

Even with the budget cuts, hopes for the new hospital are still alive. We spoke to John Haggie, our Health Minister, about the governments plans.

Haggie said there had been so many revisions to ideas for the hospital — which will replace Western Memorial Regional Hospital — during the previous Tory administration that the current government could not proceed. 

"We weren't left with anything that we could go out to tender with," Haggie said Wednesday. 

About $5 million of this year's budget for the hospital plan is earmarked to convert existing documents and plans into what Haggie said would be the basis of a request for proposals "that we can take to the market and say, 'how much would it cost? This is what we want.'" 

He added, "What we'll do is we will put together, hopefully, one grand design and then send that out in the form of an RFP and see what the market will come back with."

Adding up

So, how much has it cost Newfoundland and Labrador taxpayers to get to this point?

About $22 million has been spent over the years on various designs for the hospital, Haggie said. 

Another $18 million has been spent on preparing the site, although formal construction is still a long way away. 

Haggie, while speaking with CBC Radio's Corner Brook Morning Show, said he is reluctant to say when he would like the next milestones to be met. 

"I think it would be unwise to raise expectations by giving a date," he said.