New Vaudreuil hospital will now be double in size, to open in 2026

The Quebec government says the new Vaudreuil hospital will be bigger than originally planned. It will also be more expensive and delayed.

The plan is to double the number of beds than originally calculated. It’s now going from 200 to 400 beds.

The hospital will feature 10 operating rooms and an expanded emergency room, but with bigger plans, come bigger delays.

When the Liberals announced they’d be going ahead with the hospital two years ago, the plan was to complete the project in 2022.

Now, construction will only begin in 2022 to be completed in 2026.

“Somebody who’d come here and tell you they can do it faster would say rubbish essentially, it’s not possible,” Premier Philippe Couillard said.

The original price tag has also doubled.

The first estimate was $800,000. Now, the government is calculating an investment of $1.5 billion.

The province says they have adapted their plans to match the rapid growth of the population in the area.

“I don’t think people would’ve been really happy if I would’ve come last year and announced a 200-bed hospital and three years from now come back and say, ‘We were wrong, we need to double the size of the hospital,'” Couillard said.

“Clearly, we are making decisions not for the next 10 years but certainly for the next 50 years,” added Gaetan Barrette, Quebec’s health minister.

Also in the plans: taking care of traffic issues in the area around the hospital.

Residents and mayors of Vaudreuil and Rigaud have been complaining about the intense traffic in the area where the hospital will be built.

Couillard says the province is currently looking into different options to expand roads around the area, as well as looking into public transit options.

Vaudreuil-Dorion Mayor Guy Pilon welcomes the news.