Here’s where that $11M comes from

Re: Letters, April 4.

A letter-writer says that the $11-million Sir John Carling site contamination cleanup cost is “without evidence.”

In fact, the figure comes from an article on the federal government’s Public Services and Procurement Canada website titled “Proposed land transfer to the Ottawa Hospital,” dated March 17, 2017. It shows the proposed boundaries of the site and says “estimated costs of the remediation measures include: removal of soil/rubble fill within the building footprint: $8.3 to $8.6 million; treatment, and monitoring of impacted groundwater: $2.8 million; and excavation and off-site disposal of shallow impacted contaminated fill outside of the building footprint: cost to be determined.”

The $11.1-million figure is the low estimate from the government, and that’s not including the to-be-determined category. Factor in how government projects go and several other variables (tree transplantation, dealing with the sloped surface, demolishing or moving the currently existing buildings, being adjacent to a fault line, and other preparations) and the cost could be much higher — a cost that would not have to be incurred if the Liberal government had not interfered and forced the hospital into a site it did not choose.

The hospital is already charged with the gargantuan task of raising $400 million for the new Civic Campus, on top of funds provided by the provincial government to build the hospital. The federal government should not add to that burden by forcing the hospital into a location it did not choose. The government must immediately reveal the extra costs of forcing the hospital to the Carling Site over its preferred choice, and it must allow the hospital to revert back to its original choice — the big open field across the street from its current campus. Pierre Poilievre, Conservative MP, Carleton