MOOSONEE - With plans for it to open its doors in 2030, a contract has been awarded for the design and construction of new healthcare facilities on the James Bay coast.
On Oct. 4, the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) announced Pomerleau Healthcare Partners has received the $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to finalize the design, build and finance a new healthcare campus in Moosonee, along with an ambulatory care centre in Moose Factory.
“We've been working in collaboration with them for over a year now, so I think it's going to be a great collaborative project,” said Lynne Innes, president and CEO of WAHA.
“They seem very receptive to cultural ways of being, as well as committed to building what we foresee as our way and our healing and wellness centre, not the typical build that you would see in southern Ontario.”
The project has been in the works for over 15 years, with the current facility being the oldest unrenovated hospital in Canada.
“The redevelopment project is absolutely critical. Our current hospital is over 74 years old. The building has been on life support for the last five years, and WAHA would like to be able to provide better quality care from both a delivery of care and environmental perspective,” Innes said.
Innes said the total cost of the redevelopment project is expected to reach around $3 billion.
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Pomerleau is a Quebec-based construction firm. It has begun site work, with full construction set to start this fall. It's expected to be open by 2030.
The new healthcare campus is about 420,000 square feet and includes a 36-bed acute care hospital with private rooms, a 32-bed long-term elder lodge, staff residences, a patient and family hostel and an ambulatory care clinic. The clinic provides outpatient services, meaning patients can receive medical care without being admitted to a hospital.
“Right now we have four beds in one room with only one bathroom, so that's a huge upgrade. Having 100 per cent private rooms will provide a better patient experience, improving our patients and our people's ability to rest and recover,” Innes said.
“And the hostel will give patients and families coming from the coast a place to stay while they're attending their medical appointment.”
The project has included community consultation and engagement that will be reflected in the design, Innes said.
“Specifically in relation to the traditional healing rooms, the mural choices, the art, and the use of pictures of our region,” she said.
“The outside of the building, for example, is going to mimic what would be Northern Lights, as well as the bay.”
Once the redevelopment project is complete, Innes said it will help propel the north in terms of recruiting more physicians.
“It'll play a huge role, because we will have a brand new state-of-the-art facility with all of the diagnostic imaging that's available, as well as a friendlier space to provide care,” she said.
The current hospital was built as an "Indian hospital" for tuberculosis in 1950 on Moose Factory Island, which is across the Moose River from Moosonee, in a remote area of Northern Ontario.
It serves over 12,000 people from Omushkego communities from Moose Factory in the south to Peawanuck in the north.
Construction of the new hospital started in January 2023, with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site.
The commitment to replace the Weeneebayko General Hospital has been in the works since the 1980s, Innes said.
“The latest commitment was part of an agreement which was signed in 2007. When I became CEO, our executive team and I decided that this was going to be a top priority to ensure that the redevelopment project came to fruition,” she said.
