Shriners ready to build at Glen Will leave Cedar Ave. for MUHC site
By AARON DERFEL, The Gazette Published: Thursday, April 17
After years of uncertainty about the fate of the Montreal Shriners Hospital, high-ranking Shriners this week finally approved the construction of a new health-care facility in the city's west end, The Gazette has learned.
The Shriners' pediatric orthopedic hospital could cost as much as $100 million, and it is to be built in tandem with the future Montreal Children's Hospital in the Glen yard, straddling Notre Dame de Grâce and Westmount.
It is to include outpatient clinics, operating rooms and research laboratories, as well as beds for short-term stays, said Ralph Semb, chairperson of the board of trustees for Shriners Hospitals.
"Montreal is going to have a new facility," Semb said in a phone interview yesterday from Springfield, Mass.
"We're going to eventually move out of what we have on the hill," he added, referring to the existing location on Cedar Ave., on the slopes of Mount Royal, which the Shriners Hospital has occupied since 1925.
The decision to build a new hospital marks a dramatic shift in policy by the Shriners, a fraternal charitable organization. On three occasions, senior Shriners had tried to close the Montreal hospital and build a new one in London, Ont.
And even when Shriners voted against closing the Montreal hospital, Semb ruled out construction at the Glen site, saying the Cedar Ave. complex would be maintained in its current state.
But on Tuesday, the joint boards of the Shriners voted to approve construction of a new facility and to work with the McGill University Health Centre on architectural plans.
The MUHC oversees the Montreal Children's and is planning to build the future Children's, along with several adult pavilions and research facilities, on the Glen site.
"This is wonderful news," said Gary Morrison, chairperson of the board of governors of the Montreal Shriners Hospital.
"Finally, we have gotten past the debate of, 'Do we stay in Montreal?' Now, not only will we stay in Montreal, but we're building for the future. I'm pleased and excited."
Morrison is to make the official announcement today at a news conference at the hospital.
In 2005, Morrison was part of a delegation, including Premier Jean Charest, Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard and Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay, that lobbied Shriners at their annual convention to save the Montreal hospital.
The campaign was hard-fought, as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty also attended the convention to press the case for London. In the end, delegates were won over by a group of children who were flown in from the Montreal hospital.
Still, even in the last few months, issues kept coming up to block the Montreal project, a Shriner from Ottawa told The Gazette.
"A couple of weeks ago we were at a meeting in Manchester, N.H.," Perry McConnell said, "and we were kind of shocked" to find a lack of progress in the matter.
At that meeting, Douglas Maxwell, deputy imperial potentate of the Shriners, was persuaded to raise the issue of a new hospital in Montreal before the joint boards. Maxwell could not be reached for comment.
n the coming months, the Shriners and the MUHC are to iron out a number of technical issues to avoid a duplication of services. For example, the Shriners might consider renting some operating rooms from the future Montreal Children's, Semb said. The Shriners could also purchase blood tests from the Children's.
Both hospitals would stand next to each other and might even be heated from the same boiler room, Morrison said.
Construction of the new Montreal Children's Hospital is set for the spring of 2009. Since Semb said the Shriners would want to build in tandem, construction on their project would probably begin at that time as well.
The existing Shriners Hospital has 40 beds. Semb said the future hospital will have far fewer beds, but he couldn't give an exact number.
Morrison, however, suggested the new facility might serve a greater number of patients than it does now because Ste. Justine Hospital has indicated it would like all orthopedic procedures to be concentrated at the Shriners.
What's more, the Shriners hospital is interested in also being affiliated with the Université de Montréal.
aderfel@thegazette.canwest.com
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