Report: Quebec releases $300M for Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital expansion amid concerns about cuts to project

The Quebec government is reportedly releasing $300 million aimed at advancing the second phase of the expansion and modernization of the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal’s East End.

According to the Journal de Montréal, the information was released in a meeting between the Quebec health minister and hospital officials on Wednesday afternoon.

This phase includes preparatory work for the new main building that will house 720 beds and provide operating rooms.

While the amount has not been officially confirmed, Quebec’s Health Minister Sonia Bélanger told CityNews in a written statement that the necessary funds to begin the preparatory work have been available for several weeks.

“I attended a very productive working meeting at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital with all the partners involved,” Minister Bélanger wrote. “For several weeks now, we have said that the funds needed to begin the preparatory work are available. Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital is a leading hospital, essential to the Montreal region and to all of Quebec. This is an important project for the government.”

The CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which the hospital is part of, confirmed the meeting and said in an email to CityNews: “We are pleased with the very constructive discussions.”

Dr. François Marquis, a chief of the intensive care unit at Maisonneuve-Rosemont, says there’s nothing new here.

“Basically, it’s not an announcement,” Marquis said. “It’s the same thing. We’re exactly at the same spot that we were a few weeks ago. The only thing that they announce is that they will, at one point, sometime in the future, provide us with the $300 million and during that time, they’re still asking us to cut on the project.

“We need that money, but it is not actually to start building something.

“What I’m thinking is that someone somewhere wants to make the population believe that it’s fixed, the problem is fixed, the hospital is being rebuilt, when it isn’t.”

A call for tenders is expected to be issued in May, and the plans should be made public by the next provincial elections in the fall. The entire project for the hospital expansion has a reported budget of about $5 billion.

Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital has repeatedly made headlines for issues linked to its aging infrastructure.

“It’s catastrophic. It’s catastrophic. For a hospital, it’s a real shame,” Rosemont resident Thierry Matsiko told CityNews.

“You’ll see lots of wire mesh on the walls to prevent the bricks from falling. We know there’s been a lot of water damage,” said Michel Destroismaisons.

“I was waiting for the elevator more than six minutes or seven minutes. I’m still in the same place. It’s not moving at all. So I went by walking to the fifth floor,” added Abdulhamid Kushlaf

The Coalition HMR, which speaks for employees of the hospital, said it welcomed the news with skepticism, following setbacks by the government.

“We’re significantly concerned because the last phases of the project have been stalled with cuts to the plans of the project. On one hand, they’re moving ahead with the construction, but on the other hand, they’re delaying the project to cut the final phases of the hospital,” said Dr. Marc Brosseau, a respirologist and ICU doctor at the hospital and member for Coalition HMR.

“We’re still waiting to confirmation to what these cuts will be, but we’ve heard the parking was supposed to be underground, would be put outside. The pharmacy would be brought back in the second basement. All things that are not clearly optimal for the final project, but we’re still waiting to see what those cuts will be, what the project will be. We’re quite concerned and we really want to know that the project that’s going ahead, what is it exactly.”

The hospital expansion project is scheduled to be completed by 2035.