ADQ blasts Liberals for super-hospital plans

The Liberal government made a mistake deciding to build a $2-billion super-hospital downtown instead of in an abandoned Outremont rail yard, said Action Démocratique du Québec  Leader Mario Dumont.

Jean Charest's government is wasting money by building the CHUM super-hospital in downtown Montreal instead of in the rail yard, Dumont said Friday.

The CHUM project has become something of an albatross more than 10 years after its initial proposal, and it is a source "of disenchantment for the people of Quebec, and that is not normal," Dumont suggested.

Construction work on the mega-hospital still hasn't started, and estimated costs have more than doubled since the project's inception.

After years of deliberation, the province decided to build the hospital on the current St-Luc Hospital Centre site on René-Lévesque Boulevard instead of the rail yard, which will involve costly and complicated demolition work.

The size limit of the downtown location also presents other challenges, added ADQ candidate Éric Caire.

"The St-Luc site jeopardizes one of the most important projects in Quebec, if not the most important, and today we say: No!" Caire said Friday, as he campaigned alongside Dumont. "The Outremont site is the only one able to deliver a proper teaching hospital."

The CHUM super-hospital was originally estimated to cost about $800 million, but the final price tag has ballooned to more than $2 billion. It is not expected to open before 2013.