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07-28-2011, 10:36 PM
EditorialHome News Editorial Let’s put a shovel in the dirt and get going!
Diana Rinne
Let’s put a shovel in the dirt and get going!
By DIANA RINNE, Herald-Tribune staff
Posted 23 hours ago
Better late than never, as the saying goes.
Premier Ed Stelmach will be in our city Friday to officially turn the sod on the new regional hospital project slated for the empty field across from Grande Prairie Regional College, behind the Great Northern Casino along the Highway 43 bypass.
For many, seeing is believing, and they won't believe until the building actually starts to rise from the ground.
The new hospital has been a long-time coming. Peace Country Health started looking at the new hospital as a capital project in 2006. The proposed $250 million, 300 bed expanded acute-care facility was to be under construction by 2008 and open by 2011.
In 2006, the site across from GPRC was talked about as a possible home for the new hospital.
In December 2007, Peace Country Health submitted its first design for the proposed new hospital that was to be located on donated land in the city's northwest corner near Bear Creek Golf Course. Architectural firms were hired, schematic designs were complete. Money was ostensibly spent on the project.
In 2009, then-Health Minister Ron Liepert promised the hospital would come, but not for another four or five years. It was shelved much to the dismay of many in the Peace Country.
Former Peace Country Health board chairman Marv Moore was among those who was involved in the original planning for the new hospital, and he was bang on when he said delaying the project would cost more money.
"Building costs and the costs of steel, everything is going down in price; it's the ideal time to create employment and build a new facility," he said in 2009. "I would think the government would want to proceed with a project like that while costs are low. There are going to be lots of tradesmen available, especially a year from now."
What originally was estimated to cost $250 million is now pegged at $520 million.
Scores of hospital beds were closed in Edmonton and Calgary in 2009 in an effort to trim the then $6.9 billion provincial deficit. In the meantime, small rural hospitals such as the one in Beaverlodge waited on tenterhooks for the word that they would also be closed.
Beaverlodge remains open, and last July, Stelmach promised a new facility... albeit without any numbers or timelines attached, at the same time he made the Grande Prairie facility's official announcement.
Planning sessions have been ongoing for months, a design firm has been announced and a construction company is in place for the project. So, while it does seem likely that with the official sod turning on Friday, most will breath a collective sigh of relief, there will still be those holding their breath until the facility opens in 2014(?). After such a long wait, one can hardly blame them.
Diana Rinne
Let’s put a shovel in the dirt and get going!
By DIANA RINNE, Herald-Tribune staff
Posted 23 hours ago
Better late than never, as the saying goes.
Premier Ed Stelmach will be in our city Friday to officially turn the sod on the new regional hospital project slated for the empty field across from Grande Prairie Regional College, behind the Great Northern Casino along the Highway 43 bypass.
For many, seeing is believing, and they won't believe until the building actually starts to rise from the ground.
The new hospital has been a long-time coming. Peace Country Health started looking at the new hospital as a capital project in 2006. The proposed $250 million, 300 bed expanded acute-care facility was to be under construction by 2008 and open by 2011.
In 2006, the site across from GPRC was talked about as a possible home for the new hospital.
In December 2007, Peace Country Health submitted its first design for the proposed new hospital that was to be located on donated land in the city's northwest corner near Bear Creek Golf Course. Architectural firms were hired, schematic designs were complete. Money was ostensibly spent on the project.
In 2009, then-Health Minister Ron Liepert promised the hospital would come, but not for another four or five years. It was shelved much to the dismay of many in the Peace Country.
Former Peace Country Health board chairman Marv Moore was among those who was involved in the original planning for the new hospital, and he was bang on when he said delaying the project would cost more money.
"Building costs and the costs of steel, everything is going down in price; it's the ideal time to create employment and build a new facility," he said in 2009. "I would think the government would want to proceed with a project like that while costs are low. There are going to be lots of tradesmen available, especially a year from now."
What originally was estimated to cost $250 million is now pegged at $520 million.
Scores of hospital beds were closed in Edmonton and Calgary in 2009 in an effort to trim the then $6.9 billion provincial deficit. In the meantime, small rural hospitals such as the one in Beaverlodge waited on tenterhooks for the word that they would also be closed.
Beaverlodge remains open, and last July, Stelmach promised a new facility... albeit without any numbers or timelines attached, at the same time he made the Grande Prairie facility's official announcement.
Planning sessions have been ongoing for months, a design firm has been announced and a construction company is in place for the project. So, while it does seem likely that with the official sod turning on Friday, most will breath a collective sigh of relief, there will still be those holding their breath until the facility opens in 2014(?). After such a long wait, one can hardly blame them.