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Liberal cabinet ministers road tested Friday what promises to be a central election message — that a Progressive Conservative government would put important spending promises at risk — as they announced $1.8 billion for a new Ottawa super hospital.
The commitment, announced at a celebratory news conference at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, will be included in next week’s provincial budget.
That pre-election budget would also add $38 million to the annual operating budgets of seven local hospitals, according to details made public Friday.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute would receive the biggest revenue boost with an 8.3 per cent budget hike, which would add $11.5 million to its funding base. Montfort Hospital (2.7 per cent), the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (2.5 per cent), The Ottawa Hospital (two per cent), Queensway Carleton Hospital (two per cent) and The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (two per cent) would also receive new money intended to improve care, reduce surgical wait times and relieve pressure on emergency departments.
But Liberal Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli warned that all of those investments, including the money earmarked for a new Civic campus, could be in jeopardy if Progressive Conservative Doug Ford is elected premier.
Ontario voters are scheduled to go to the polls June 7.
“A subsequent government doesn’t necessarily have to continue what was in a budget or what was underway,” Chiarelli, MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, told reporters.
In June 1995, he noted, the newly elected Conservative government of then-premier Mike Harris cancelled funding for Toronto’s Eglinton West subway and “filled in the hole.”
“I wouldn’t expect a lot of governments to do that,” he said, “but the reality is that a new government can create a budget, they can defer projects, and as I said, they could cancel projects.”
Ford has not yet detailed his health-care platform except to say that his party will live up to the progressive part of its name while remaining fiscally conservative.
Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre, said the Liberals have made “a very deliberate choice” by borrowing money to invest in health care, mental health and child care. Ten hospitals, including the new Civic campus, are now in the planning or construction phases; they account for more than $10 billion in government infrastructure commitments.
“He (Ford) is going to make it sound like the money is going into thin air, that we’re wasting money,” said Naqvi, one of five Liberal MPPs on hand for Friday’s announcement. “I think every government wastes probably some, but where are the big dollars going? The big dollars are going into things like building a hospital for $1.8 billion.”
The Ottawa Hospital funding announcement — the latest in a series of major health-care commitments made by the government of Premier Kathleen Wynne — represents another major milestone on the road toward a new, high-tech Civic campus.
The Ottawa Hospital is now in its first year of what’s expected to be a five-year planning process for the super hospital, which is to be built on the former site of the Sir John Carling Building. It’s projected to open in 2026.
“If we get things right,” hospital president and CEO Jack Kitts said, “the new campus of The Ottawa Hospital will have a bigger impact on our community’s health and health care than any of us can imagine today.”
He said the new hospital will provide the people of Ottawa world-class health care, while serving as a magnet to attract the best and brightest doctors and medical researchers to this city.
Preliminary plans for the $2-billion Civic campus feature an oval-shaped building that preserves the site’s biggest stand of mature trees. The hospital, which will be built on the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm, will also feature underground parking, single-patient rooms and an underground emergency department entrance, according to concept drawings made public earlier this year.
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The commitment, announced at a celebratory news conference at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus, will be included in next week’s provincial budget.
That pre-election budget would also add $38 million to the annual operating budgets of seven local hospitals, according to details made public Friday.
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute would receive the biggest revenue boost with an 8.3 per cent budget hike, which would add $11.5 million to its funding base. Montfort Hospital (2.7 per cent), the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (2.5 per cent), The Ottawa Hospital (two per cent), Queensway Carleton Hospital (two per cent) and The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (two per cent) would also receive new money intended to improve care, reduce surgical wait times and relieve pressure on emergency departments.
But Liberal Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli warned that all of those investments, including the money earmarked for a new Civic campus, could be in jeopardy if Progressive Conservative Doug Ford is elected premier.
Ontario voters are scheduled to go to the polls June 7.
“A subsequent government doesn’t necessarily have to continue what was in a budget or what was underway,” Chiarelli, MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, told reporters.
In June 1995, he noted, the newly elected Conservative government of then-premier Mike Harris cancelled funding for Toronto’s Eglinton West subway and “filled in the hole.”
“I wouldn’t expect a lot of governments to do that,” he said, “but the reality is that a new government can create a budget, they can defer projects, and as I said, they could cancel projects.”
Ford has not yet detailed his health-care platform except to say that his party will live up to the progressive part of its name while remaining fiscally conservative.
Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre, said the Liberals have made “a very deliberate choice” by borrowing money to invest in health care, mental health and child care. Ten hospitals, including the new Civic campus, are now in the planning or construction phases; they account for more than $10 billion in government infrastructure commitments.
“He (Ford) is going to make it sound like the money is going into thin air, that we’re wasting money,” said Naqvi, one of five Liberal MPPs on hand for Friday’s announcement. “I think every government wastes probably some, but where are the big dollars going? The big dollars are going into things like building a hospital for $1.8 billion.”
The Ottawa Hospital funding announcement — the latest in a series of major health-care commitments made by the government of Premier Kathleen Wynne — represents another major milestone on the road toward a new, high-tech Civic campus.
The Ottawa Hospital is now in its first year of what’s expected to be a five-year planning process for the super hospital, which is to be built on the former site of the Sir John Carling Building. It’s projected to open in 2026.
“If we get things right,” hospital president and CEO Jack Kitts said, “the new campus of The Ottawa Hospital will have a bigger impact on our community’s health and health care than any of us can imagine today.”
He said the new hospital will provide the people of Ottawa world-class health care, while serving as a magnet to attract the best and brightest doctors and medical researchers to this city.
Preliminary plans for the $2-billion Civic campus feature an oval-shaped building that preserves the site’s biggest stand of mature trees. The hospital, which will be built on the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm, will also feature underground parking, single-patient rooms and an underground emergency department entrance, according to concept drawings made public earlier this year.
查看原文...
