Statement by David Culver in Response to Government's Announcement in Support of the Glen Project

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) welcomes the Government of Québec's endorsement of the Glen Project and looks forward to a new era of health care excellence for our patients and their families. Over the coming months, we will plan the implementation of our health facility for the 21st century in accordance with criteria set out today by the Minister of Health.
There is one criterion, however, that stands out above the rest and will be at the forefront of our thinking as we move forward with the planning process. I am referring to our commitment to excellence on a world scale. Our goal is to maintain and boost the quality of our patient care, teaching and research and to be a global leader in each of these areas.

We have been waiting a long time for this announcement and will begin work tomorrow on finalizing our plans. We intend to be ready in advance of the time line the Minister has set.

With this in mind, I should point out that more than a year ago, a high level team of medical leaders from the MUHC concluded that a two-site scenario for the implementation of the Glen Project is feasible. In the coming months we will refine this plan which calls for the Montreal General Hospital site to only house services that can fulfill their mission at a distance from the emergency/acute-care/research hub at the Glen Site.

We are particularly pleased that the Government of Québec has recognized that the Montreal Children's Hospital is an essential component of the MUHC Glen Project. This commitment to a paediatric vocation for the MUHC is further reinforced by the steps that the Government is taking to ensure that the Shriners Hospital remains in Montreal as an independent part of the Glen Site development.

With this announcement, the MUHC will now move quickly to finalize budgets and to identify sources of funding including federal contributions, public-private partnerships and private sector fundraising. We will also move ahead with the hiring of project managers and architects and finalizing plans for the environmental clean up of the Glen Yard.

Guaranteeing high quality health care for Montrealers, including ongoing excellence in research and education, demands the kind of investment that this decision will put into motion.

A green light for the Glen Project is good news for our patients and their families, for the communities that we serve, for our staff, for McGill University and its mission to advance medical knowledge, for Montreal, and for all Québecers.

We look forward to working closely with the Minister of Health and with the Government of Quebec to put this essential facility in place as rapidly and effectively as we possibly can.