Quebec finds funds to begin work at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital

Under pressure from all sides to begin the reconstruction of Montreal’s Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital (HMR) as quickly as possible, the François Legault government will release the necessary funds to launch construction this year.

Quebec intends to revise its Quebec Infrastructure Plan (PQI) to allow work to begin at Maisonneuve-Rosemont, but also to launch other projects.

“Tomorrow (Wednesday), I will present to the Members of Cabinet the solution we arrived at,” Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé told reporters. “I would say not only for Maisonneuve-Rosemont, but for a set of projects that we needed to implement as quickly as possible. I have often said that the challenges we face concern all of our health projects.”

The Cabinet is expected to approve the changes allowing the work to begin. Dubé says what he is presenting to the CAQ ministers will have three components.

“It allows us to start at HMR as planned with the preparatory work; this is important because I absolutely wanted us to start this year. It will be done. Secondly, we are able to look at around 30 projects in the network. And there, I don’t want to get into jargon, but what that means is that these projects, for the most part, were not in progress.”

The health minister says the funds are being taken from this year’s $3.6 billion budget.

“This is the first time that we’ve taken health budgets and given them to Santé Québec,” he said. “These people were given a budget of $3.6 billion in February, which was finalized in the last days of February, early March. And when we looked at the impact of what that had, we said, ‘can we, in the coming weeks, find solutions?’ Because I’m telling you, it’s not just HMR. There were all the projects, because you know, we need money to catch up.

“We have the money needed to carry out the HMR project in the PQI,” he said.

The Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital is one of the largest in Quebec and provides care to nearly 550,000 Montrealers. Mayor Valérie Plante said she was “relieved” by the funding proposal.

“At least to make sure to stabilize or to move forward with the ‘bureau de projet,’” Plante said. “But of course, it has to be more, because this is a crucial hospital for Montrealers, but also for many Quebecers across the province who use the hospital for very specific services. So this is good news today, and there has to be more.

“This is a must-have to renovate and to make this hospital what it used to be.”

Added Opposition Leader Soraya Martinez Ferrada: “Montreal East has been waiting too long for this project. This is excellent news, not only for the citizens of the East, but also for the entire life sciences sector in Montreal and for all Quebec patients.”

The funds released would notably allow for the construction of the new multi-level parking garage at Maisonneuve-Rosemont, which must be completed first so that work can begin on the space occupied by the current parking lot.

Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital has been in the headlines for months due to its alarmingly dilapidated condition. Last Tuesday, strong winds caused a major power outage and broken windows.

Montrealer Dominique Riel said she has been stuck in an elevator during her visit to the hospital.

“I was stuck for a few minutes, then I pressed all the buttons and it started working again. It made me feel pretty unsafe especially since I was all alone… Later I noticed it was condemned, which makes me think that I wasn’t the only one that got stuck,” she said.

Hospital staff have also come forward with reports of rodents, bats and ants inside the aging building.

Local resident Carolle Dumoulin said that such reports have been concerning and that the government needs to act.
“The funds need to be released for the renovation, we need a hospital that works, it’s not been easy to hear stories about squirrels and ants.”

The Legault government has been promising major renovations at HMR for years, but has pushed back the timeline, citing the budget situation and needs elsewhere.

Last week, the premier stated that he would try to raise $85 million to begin the first phase of the project, namely the multi-level parking structure.

‘We won’t treat patients in the parking’

In a rarely seen joint press conference, the three Opposition parties at the National Assembly questioned the government’s plan.

“The government basically looked at everything they had at the bottom of their drawers and said, ‘OK, we could find $85 million to do a parking and maybe we’ll stop talking about this now,” said André Fortin, the Liberal MNA for Pontiac and health critic. “But the issue here is not the parking lot. The issue is what happens after the parking lot is completed. Where is the money for the hospital itself to go ahead?

“Nobody here this morning is satisfied with $85 million for a parking lot. They know it’s the first step. Everybody knows it’s the first step. But we will not be able to afford one day, one week, one month, one year between the construction of the parking lot and the construction of the hospital. Every day that goes by, these people here are working under more treacherous conditions.”

Marc Brosseau, a respiratologist-intensivist at the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’île-de-Montréal, said that a full renovation of the hospital has to happen with urgency, not just the construction of the parking lot.

“As you saw last week, I mean, you saw the fragility of the hospital, a simple thunderstorm, with a blackout in the intensive care unit and people stuck in the elevators, the windows blowing open. This is an emergency and we need to move ahead with the full project,” he added referring to the storm that damaged the hospital.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon accused the governing CAQ of having ulterior political motives.

“The risk here is that the envelope that should be used for the hospital, the project as a whole, be spent on other projects, leaving us with a parking lot and no more money to go forward with the hospital project. That’s the risk here,” St-Pierre Plamondon said. “So we want the project to be budgeted as a whole to make sure that once the parking is done, we have the money to go forward in other steps of that project.

“But it’s very tempting for the government to just spend on the parking and use the monies for other projects elsewhere based on a calculation of where they will get the most votes.”

Added Québéc solidaire MNA Vincent Marissal: “Basically we need a plan. And the plan comes with a budget and with a timeline. Now we have a parking. That’s a first. Let’s begin with the parking. We need the parking to get started. But at some point, we won’t treat patients in the parking, right? So at some point we need a deal, we need a plan with a budget, something we don’t have right now.”

The opposition parties were joined by doctors with the HMR Coalition. Dr. François Marquis, the critical chare chief at HMR, explained the hospital has multiple weakness spots.

“So the goal is, yes, to put some money to keep the hospital running and keep everything safe and start right away digging,” Marquis said. “The problem is to start digging, we have to dig inside the current parking lot. So this is why we’re always talking about this parking lot because you cannot destroy the actual parking lot to build the hospital until you get something else.”

Information about the start of construction began circulating when, in an open letter, patients from across Quebec implored Legault to begin rebuilding the hospital as quickly as possible.

In this letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, the approximately 45 signatories appealed to the premier’s sense of responsibility, declaring they were issuing a “national cry from the heart.”

“Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, as you know, is not just another hospital,” they began.

“Every year, thousands of Quebecers are treated there: premature babies from the Eastern Townships, cancer patients from the Laurentians, transplant recipients from Abitibi.”

“We are these patients, these families, these survivors. … We have hoped, cried, and healed within its tired walls, yet bearers of miracles.”

If he postpones the reconstruction of HMR, the premier will go down in history as the one who “mortgaged the health not of a neighbourhood, but of a people,” they say.

“You have the power to avert this impending catastrophe,” they wrote to Legault.

“And if nothing changes, it is for this neglect that you will go down in history in the hearts of Quebecers: not as a builder, but as the one who abandoned a jewel of our health system.”

The signatories assure that they are not seeking to “accuse,” but to remind everyone that they are “from Mauricie, the Laurentians, Lanaudière, Estrie, and other regions of Quebec.”

They ask the premier to recognize that the reconstruction of HMR is not a “local” request, but rather a “national” priority.

— With files from Caroline Plante, Thomas Laberge and Mathieu Paquette, La Presse Canadienne