Alberta to spend $1.25B on health facilities in smaller cities, towns

CALGARY – The Stelmach government announced $1.25 billion in new funding Wednesday to build 22 health-care facility projects in 15 small- and medium-sized communities – including a redeveloped Medicine Hat hospital – as part of phase one of its delayed health capital plan.

The provincial government is finalizing details for phase two of its strategy (also expected at about $1.25 billion), which will include new health facilities for Calgary and Edmonton. The total three-year health capital plan is valued at $2.5 billion.

Projects announced in Wednesday’s blueprint will include cash from the new three-year capital plan, but also funding that may have been allocated in previous years, as well as dollars that will be injected over the next few years. It will take up to five years for some projects to be fully funded.

Facilities in the health capital plan for small- and medium-sized communities include:

– About $200 million total provincial support for redevelopment of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, which will begin immediately, including $43.5 million out of the 2010-13 capital plan to accelerate the project. The first phase of the redevelopment will include renovations to create additional ambulatory treatment space, with construction expected to begin in Summer 2011 and conclude in 2013.

– $520 million to build a new regional hospital in Grande Prairie, which will include a new cancer centre.

– $12.3 million to fully fund the new $12.8 million Cochrane Health Centre (with the first group of move-ins in December 2010, and second group in spring of 2011).

– $108 million to build a new health centre in Edson.

– $90 million to build a new health centre in High Prairie to replace the existing complex and a nursing home.

jfekete@theherald.canwest.com