Sports and wellbeing dome planned as neighbour to replacement St. Clare's hospital

The replacement site selected for St. Clare's Mercy Hospital will include more than a new hospital.

The 64 acres of purchased and donated land in the Kenmount Crossing area of St. John's will also include a new sports and wellbeing dome.

The dome has been in the works for some time. Announced in Newfoundland and Labrador's 2024 provincial budget under a $13-million investment, the dome will provide exercise rehabilitation for acute care patients.

Provincial-level athletes and teams will also be able to train and compete in the facility, and a walking track will be open to the general public. 

Newfoundland and Labrador's Infrastructure Minister Fred Hutton told reporters earlier this week that the dome was set to be located in Kenmount Crossing before officials decided on the new hospital's location. 

"The hospital sort of came after that fact because we had been doing our fit tests with the other sites for the hospital, and it ended up landing at Kenmount Crossing," Hutton said earlier this week.

Land sale not complete

Located in the northwest corner of St. John's, the land is near the borders of both Paradise and Mount Pearl. The new hospital and dome will be built on Nils Way, located off Kenmount Road just west of the expanding Kenmount Terrace subdivision.

The province didn't choose the location only because of its convenient location. Ten of the 64 acres of land were donated by H3 Development, but the government's purchase of the remainder of the land was not disclosed in its initial announcement. 

Infrastructure Minister Fred Hutton said the province has an agreement with H3 Development to purchase the remaining 54 acres of land for around $23 million. 

As of Tuesday, the final land sale has not been completed. Hutton said the province is working with lawyers on some of the land survey issues.

Hutton could not confirm how many acres of land the dome would require. Still, he said the 64 acres being purchased is a larger footprint of land than at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's or Western Memorial Regional Hospital in Corner Brook. 

"The Health Sciences, I think, is about 53 or 55 acres, somewhere in that range," Hutton said. "The hospital on the west Coast is 35 acres. We're going to have something bigger than that." 

Moving too quickly

PC Leader Tony Wakeham said the province is rushing into purchasing H3 Development's land, which according to Hutton has yet to be assessed.

"They want full steam ahead with this land being purchased without doing any of that work," Wakeham said.

He questions if purchasing the land, when other Crown land may be available, is an effective use of public funds. 

"Anytime that you're going to spend a significant amount of public money, $23 million, you ought to make sure you're getting the best deal for the government, for the people's money," Wakeham said.

"It's not their money. It's the people in Newfoundland and Labrador."

Wakeham wants the government to be more transparent. He said the province initally made it seem like the new hospital was only being built on donated land. 

"The story keeps changing, and the more we dig into it, the more we find out," he said. "What do you have to lose by being open and transparent with the people in Newfoundland and Labrador?"

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