A new hospital in Kenora is expected to cost in the range of $800 million.
Last week, the province announced $50 million dollars in the budget last week for the next phases of planning.
President and CEO of Lake of the Woods District Hospital Cheryl O’Flaherty says this follows the completion of the first phase of the project.
“It’s definitely a move to Stage 2, and I’ll just say they (the province) wouldn’t move us to Stage 2 if they weren’t going, in the end, fund the entire piece,” O’Flaherty says in a press scrum Thursday afternoon.
“So, I think that’s a pretty significant commitment on behalf of the government.”
Alison Wesley-James is the Vice-President of Operations and Capital Planning at Lake of the Woods District Hospital and says the costs are just ballpark figures right now.
“With the scope of services being already determined and decided upon, we’ll be looking at ways of value engineering to deal with escalation and the impacts of the tariffs. We have to realistically assume there will be some of those discussions.”
The new hospital will take anywhere from 6 to 8 years to complete, with the next three years dedicated to planning.
(Photo right to left: Jennifer Dreaver executive director of KCA, Cheryl O’Flaherty, Lake of the Woods District Hospital, Mayor Andrew Poirier at Queen’s Park)
