$227M for Corner Brook hospital complex

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale is pledging $227 million toward a new hospital complex in Corner Brook.

Dunderdale made the pre-budget announcement in the west coast city on Wednesday morning.

The money will be rolled out over the next three years, with $7 million of it to be included in next week's provincial budget. Health Minister Susan Sullivan said the complex will include five buildings and 260 beds.

"That design now will include the development of a long-term care facility as part of the overall complex," said Sullivan.

"We are looking at an acute care facility that will include mental health, and we are also looking at a hostel. The hostel will be a 48-bed facility that will house residents and interns who come here to complete their studies, as well as patients and their families who will need to take advantage of the hostel."

Promised in 2007 

The provincial Progressive Conservatives first promised a new hospital for the western region during the 2007 provincial election.

Then-premier Danny Williams announced a location for the hospital in 2009.

Another long-term care facility was opened in Corner Brook in 2010. 

In the House of Assembly on Wednesday afternoon, Liberal Eddie Joyce, the MHA for the Bay of Islands, noted he's heard the promise of a new hospital many times before.

"There is a saying, 'deja vu all over again.' In 2011 the member for Humber East stated construction would begin in 2012. Now we learn that the design work may begin this year. I ask the premier, why has this government continually made false commitments to the people of the west coast?" Joyce asked.

Sullivan said earlier Wednesday that the government is still working on the final design for the complex, and construction on the new facility is scheduled to start in 2015.