Associations, Government, InfrastructureFunding The Ottawa Hospital expansion has been the subject of debate during this municipal election campaign and for good reason.
While it’s not uncommon for municipalities to help pay for new hospitals, something isn’t quite right about The Ottawa Hospital asking the city to chip in $150 million towards construction of its new Civic Campus; not when it had other options. It could have followed what is standard practice on all large health care infrastructure projects and allowed all contractors and workers to build the $2.8 billion project.
When there’s too little competition, it affects all of us. It drives up the cost of everything from our hydro to cellphone bills.It’s been well-founded that when there’s a lack of competition, construction costs rise by at least eight to 15 per cent.The greater the number of bids on a project, the lower the cost. Competition forces contractors to sharpen their pencils. This ensures the public gets good value on its infrastructure investments.