Goverment is renovating and expanding the Health Sciences Centre emergency department, but it is going to cost about four times the original budgeted price.

Yesterday, the province awarded the contract for construction of the new ER to Marco Group, at a price of $40.5 million. That’s up significantly from the $10 million allotted in the 2022 budget.

Infrastructure minister Elvis Loveless says the cost increase is no different from other projects, such as roads, that have seen costs increase this year due to what he calls worldly pressures around material and labour costs.

But, he says they’re not going to put the brakes on the project, because the infrastructure is badly needed.

Meanwhile, the province’s opposition parties are raising concerns about the proposed upgrades to Health Science’s ER.

Both PC Leader David Brazil and NDP leader Jim Dinn agree that improving health care infrastructure is a good thing, but they question the merits of this $40 million expansion.

Brazil questions how the project cost ballooned by about $30 million when nothing has changed from the budget last spring.

He says the project does nothing to address any of the province’s immediate health care concerns, and indicates to him that “another Liberal-friendly company” is benefiting to the tune of an extra $30 million above what was budgeted.

Brazil calls the announcement an “embarrassment” and “an insult to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador” that will only delay access in emergency rooms.

NDP Leader Jim Dinn says it is like the province has written a blank cheque to get the project done, which he finds frustrating.

He says whenever he raises issues around things like guaranteed basic income, housing, and the minimum wage the province uses its financial restraints as the reasons not to do it. Yet, Dinn argues, when it comes to awarding a contract the mindset is not to worry about the cost.