Mackenzie Health leadership, government officials and project partners celebrated substantial completion of the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, the first net new hospital to be built in Ontario in more than 30 years. The milestone signals the completion of the bulk of construction on the project and the start of months of work ahead to ensure the hospital is ready to provide patient care. When it opens in early 2021, Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital will double access to care for the communities of Vaughan, King and Richmond Hill, and add necessary capacity to the health care system.

“Substantial completion of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital is a remarkable achievement and a reflection of the incredible work and dedication of our team and partners in moving us toward our two-hospital future,” said Mackenzie Health President and CEO Altaf Stationwala. “Our vision to increase access to safe, quality care for residents across southwest York Region will soon become a reality.”

With the addition of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, Mackenzie Health will offer full-service emergency departments and medicine and surgery programs at two hospitals to help alleviate the ever-growing pressure on resources in the health system. Some specialized care programs and services will be based at only one of the two hospitals — such as the Woman and Child program at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and the inpatient Rehabilitation and Complex Continuing Care programs at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital.

“I want to congratulate the team at Mackenzie Health for reaching substantial completion of the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “This significant milestone means we are another step closer to opening the new state-of-the-art hospital early next year. Once complete, the hospital will directly help build more capacity in the health care system, shorten wait times and end hallway health care across York Region.” 

Construction on Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital broke ground in October 2016. The project was delivered by Plenary Health, along with partners PCL Constructors Canada Inc., Stantec and Johnson Controls. The project reached substantial completion on August 26.

“On behalf of the Plenary Health team we are thrilled to hand the site over to Mackenzie Health so they can transform this smart building into a hospital,” said Kelly Wallace, Vice President and District Manager, PCL Constructors Canada Inc. “The passionate pursuit of a shared vision motivated us to overcome any challenge, and I’d like to commend over 1,000 women and men whose commitment to safety enabled us to complete this hospital for the community during a global pandemic, with over three million hours worked without a lost time injury.”

With construction substantially complete on Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, Mackenzie Health teams will begin the enormous task of turning the building into a fully functional hospital so that it can safely open its doors to patients. This includes installing and testing thousands of pieces of equipment, training more than 3,000 staff across both sites, and developing and simulating a number of mock patient scenarios.

“In just a few short months’ time, the City of Vaughan will have its first hospital, and what a hospital it will be! Our residents will have access to Canada’s first smart hospital with a team of expert nurses and physicians providing the ultimate in care,” said Maurizio Bevilacqua, Mayor of Vaughan and Chair of the Mackenzie Health Foundation’s Ultimate fundraising campaign. “I know that the giving spirit of our community will inspire us all as we join together on the last leg of this journey towards opening day.”  

To date, the provincial government has invested $1.3 billion for construction of the project. An additional $178 million has been raised from the community to date as part of Mackenzie Health Foundation’s $250 million Ultimate campaign.

ADDITIONAL QUOTES:

“Working with partners, I remain focused on delivering the future state-of-the-art Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and getting it opened for families in our community. When Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital opens early next year, we will transform local health care, reduce wait times, and improve the quality of life of our residents. It’s about time.”

–          Stephen Lecce, MPP for King-Vaughan and Minister of Education

“I wish to congratulate Mackenzie Health and all those involved for their support in making this project a reality. People and families in our community will soon have access to the most modern, reliable health care just steps from home at Ontario’s first net new hospital in more than 30 years. This project brings us another step towards our goal of ending hallway health care and will ensure that people have access to the high-quality health care they expect and deserve.”

–          Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan-Woodbridge and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

“Infrastructure Ontario is pleased to have partnered with Mackenzie Health to deliver Canada’s first state-of-the-art, smart hospital using the P3 model. The entire team successfully navigated this project through a pandemic with no impacts to the project schedule, which is a truly incredible achievement. We take a great deal of pride in seeing this project completed knowing the immediate, positive impact it will have on the community.”

–          Michael Lindsay, President, Project Delivery, Infrastructure Ontario