Protesters disrupt McGill hospital groundbreaking

The groundbreaking for the new McGill University Hospital Centre was cancelled Thursday because of protests, but Quebec Premier Jean Charest says work on the long-promised superhospital, one of two being built in the city, is on track.

Charest announced that an international consortium headed by Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin and British company Innisfree Ltd. will partner with the Quebec government to build the $1.34-billion project on the site of the former Glen rail yards in the city's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district.

Construction will begin in a few days and is scheduled to be completed in 2014.

"The shovel goes into the ground, and we are on track," said MUHC executive director Arthur Porter. "This hospital will be built."

However, about 60 protesters kept the ceremonial shovels from digging in on Thursday. Some were angry that the English-language superhospital was scheduled to be completed before its French-language counterpart, the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM).

Many others were unhappy about the government's decision to build the hospital as a public-private partnership, or PPP.

"If you look at the situation in Britain where they've gone with the PPPs, they've had big problems with the maintenance over the course of the years following construction, " said protester Susan Mullan.

Hospital officials said the public-private structure of the projects required considerable advanced planning, which will prevent costs overruns.

"We have bought into a package, and that, perhaps, is the most strong reason we will be on time and on budget," said Porter.

Plans to build the hospitals were first confirmed in 2001. The projects have faced numerous delays.