Quebec Premier Jean Charest at Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital on Aug. 17.Peter Ray Rakobowchuk
They may seem little more than a decaying building or a dusty demolition zone, but where others find bleakness the Quebec government sees a shimmering future.
"We want this city and this province to be known throughout the world as one of the leading places for health sciences and health research," Premier Jean Charest said Tuesday.
As part of a continuing and ambitious long-term effort to vault Montreal into the major leagues of life-science research alongside such places as Atlanta and Boston, the Quebec government announced a major renovation and expansion of Sainte-Justine, a leading children's hospital - Mr. Charest vowed it would "confirm and affirm its place as the largest birthing centre in Canada."
Skeptics will point out that Mr. Charest has used similarly lofty language before, and critics may grouse he could have gone some distance toward that aim by acting sooner than his seventh year in office to break ground on a pair of super-hospital projects (combined price tag: $5.2-billion).
But after more than a decade of delays and false starts, construction equipment rumbled on to the site of the McGill University Health Centre campus in Montreal's west end last Thursday (the institution has set up a live Web camera of the job site).
Earlier this summer, crews began construction of the first phase of the new University of Montreal Hospital Centre complex in the city's downtown.
All three projects are slated for completion in 2018, and Mr. Charest said he expects they will provide an illustration of the future of Quebec's economy.
"We are investing in an area that's going to produce high-quality work and jobs," the Premier said in explaining why his cash-strapped government is willing to cough up $925-million to refurbish the dowdy Sainte-Justine children's hospital in Montreal and build a new pediatric research wing and specialized-care units.
Mr. Charest also noted the importance of having a leading-edge research facility for French-speaking scientists, and suggested the new facilities will be a powerful draw for top talent.
Still, skepticism abounds over whether the trio of new institutions will provide the type of lift Mr. Charest predicts (Health Minister Yves Bolduc, himself a doctor, enthused that Quebec would boast "among the most modern medical universities" on the continent). André-Pierre Contandriopoulos, a health administration expert who teaches at the University of Montreal, suggested "there are legitimate doubts" as to the 2018 deadline.
"It's a wonderful objective . . . but let's not forget that promises like these have been made for at least the last 10 years, and they haven't come to fruition," Prof. Contandriopoulos said.
Then there's the question of how the government's project is being carried out: in three separate, geographically scattered new mega-projects that in many ways are competitors. It's not optimal for creating synergies, he said.
Still, the government is pressing ahead and even signalled a shift in strategy, eschewing the public-private partnership used for the McGill health centre in the Sainte-Justine case - some experts believe it could herald a switch in the way the University of Montreal health centre is funded.
In any case, Prof. Contandriopoulos said, the path to achieving Mr. Charest's lofty ambitions depends less on buildings and leading-edge equipment than people.
"How do we create the conditions for innovation? That's something we don't fully know the answer to," he said, adding "but it's an illusion to think you just invest in concrete."
Opposition politicians, meanwhile, scoffed at Mr. Charest's ability to deliver on his grand plans.
"To want to turn Montreal into a cutting-edge centre for health sciences is great, and it's a vision we would happily share, but at the same time we have to understand that the money has to come from somewhere. What other projects will we have to forgo?" Parti Québécois health critic Bernard Drainville said in an interview.
Mr. Drainville asserted that Tuesday's announcement represents "a 100 per cent cost overrun" on a broadly similar, though significantly less ambitious project announced in 2006.
"And can they really respect their 2018 promise?" he asked.