Construction prep will begin this spring at site of new Halifax Infirmary acute-care tower

Health Minister Michelle Thompson has announced that fencing and excavation work will begin this spring at the site of a planned acute-care tower at the QEll Health Sciences Centre's Halifax Infirmary.

"It is a significant step forward for the largest health-care construction project ever considered in this province," she said Wednesday. "It will mean better health-care services for Nova Scotians for generations to come."

A new emergency department entrance for the public, off Bell Road, will also be built.

That work will help pave the way for a modern health-care building that will include 216 acute care beds, 16 operating rooms, an intensive care unit and a new, larger emergency department.

"This modern, purpose-built tower will bring us into the next generation of patient care for all Nova Scotians," said Dr. Christine Short, Nova Scotia Health's senior medical director of redevelopment for the Central Zone. "The QEII redevelopment team is busy engaging with our clinical teams and leadership to ensure the design puts patients and families first in the layout and design."

The province will continue to upgrade the Halifax Infirmary's entrance on Summer Street, which will become the hospital's main entrance during construction. Work is also continuing to relocate utilities as well as to replace and renovate the hospital's MRI space.

Last year "was a design year and we recognized we need to have a strong foundation and strong base of a design before we could move forward," said Colton LeBlanc, minister of Service Nova Scotia and the former minister responsible for health-care redevelopment, as Thompson has now assumed responsibility for projects under the portfolio.

The new facility will be built close to Robie Street in an area where a parkade currently sits. That parkade is expected to be demolished this summer. Details are still being finalized for alternative parking options. A new parkade on Summer Street is now open, said Leblanc.

Opposition questions project delays

Tim Houston's PC government had previously announced construction on this project was 'set to begin' in May of 2023.

Cabinet responsibility for the re-development project has now been transferred from Service Nova Scotia Minister Colton Leblanc to Thompson.

Leblanc said last year "was a design year and we recognized we need to have a strong foundation and strong base of a design before we could move forward."

Meanwhile, Houston said the change wasn't made because he was disappointed in Leblanc's efforts, but because the project is more in the health minister's wheelhouse.

Opposition Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, however, said a lack of progress was reason enough for the shift.

"This has been a project that hasn't moved in two years and they haven't been forthright with Nova Scotians on why that is," he said.

"We have no timelines, so obviously something needed to change on this."

Houston's government has adopted the slogan "More, faster" to describe its efforts to improve the province's health-care system, but it remains unclear if work to redevelop the QEII will be completed any faster than 2032, the year the previous Liberal government had promised to finish the project.

Last May, the Nova Scotia government announced it would spend $245 million to prepare the site for the first phase of construction. An estimate on the final cost of the facility could not be provided, but it is expected to be in the billions of dollars and the anticipated completion date remains unclear.