Politicians say rumours about the new hospital are not true

The provincial government and a local MLA for GP Wapiti are saying rumours about the new Grande Prairie hospital are false.
 
The gossip included stories about drywall being damaged, that the windows and doors need to be replaced, and machines bought for the new facility are out of date and need to be replaced.
 
GP Wapiti MLA Wayne Drysdale says he doesn’t know where rumours like this come from.
 
“I toured the hospital two weeks ago and it looks pretty good to me in there, so I’m going to have to say they’re false. The response from the department says the same thing. A lot of the drywall is painted already.”
 
The province’s Infrastructure department also called the allegations false in a statement emailed to Everything GP.
 
Drysdale adds there was no equipment in the building when he was there.
 
“The guy doing the tour said they weren’t going to order (equipment) until six months before they were finished just for that reason. If they ordered it five years ago, it would be old stuff now, or out-dated. There is no equipment there, that’s for sure, I can verify that.”
 
He adds it did not like construction was back up to speed at the time of his tour.
 
“They were just picking away. I think it was mostly Clark (Construction) employees. I didn’t see any sub-contractors on site yet. They were supposed to be. I was hoping to see that, but they weren’t. Hopefully soon (they will be), I was told they were going to be back in there in January.”
 
Drysdale is still hoping the hospital will open in 2020.
 
The statement from Infrastructure also says previous governments had no clear plans for the project, but that the current government “has shovels in the ground.”
 
Drysdale says he was there when then-PC Premier Ed Stelmach turned the sod, adding it is not time to assess blame, it is time to get it built.