Montreal’s new Shriners Hospital for Children

MONTREAL - Montreal’s new Shriners Hospital for Children will be more than twice the size of its existing building on Mount Royal and will have an entire floor devoted to research to attract the finest physician-scientists from around the world, Shriners said at a ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday.



Six years after threatening to close their Montreal pediatric orthopedic hospital and build a new one in London, Ont., senior Shriners are vowing to stay in Quebec for good.



“We want to be a permanent part of the (Montreal) community forever and ever to treat the children of Canada,” said Doug Maxwell, chairman of the board of trustees for the Shriners hospitals.



The ground-breaking drew Premier Jean Charest and Mayor Gérald Tremblay, both of whom had attended a Shriners convention in Baltimore in 2005 to lobby for the hospital to stay in Montreal.



“From the bottom of my heart, I want to (convey) our gratitude,” Charest told a hall packed with Shriners wearing fezes, adding that the new hospital will be a symbol of co-operation between Quebec and the United States.



The hospital will be built on the southwest corner of the Glen yard in Notre Dame de Grâce. The construction budget is $127 million, nearly three times original estimates. The McGill University Health Centre will contribute $5 million; the Shriners will raise the balance privately.



The new facility will have four operating rooms – double what is available at the hospital on Cedar Ave., which has stood at the same address since 1925.



The Shriners building will be integrated into the $1.3-billion MUHC superhospital at the Glen site, now under construction. In fact, it will be connected to the future home of the Montreal Children’s Hospital.



Both the Children’s and Shriners’ are expected to open in 2015.



Dr. Francis Glorieux, former director of research at the Shriners Hospital in Montreal, said the new facility should be a draw for scientists from around the world.



“We’re going to have 2½ times more space to carry out our research,” Glorieux said.



At present, the Shriners Hospital has nine researchers, and it hopes to double that number, he added.



Jerry Gantt, a member of the Shriners board of directors in line to become the Imperial Potentate in 2015, said this hospital – the only one in Canada – is among the best of its 22 in North America. One of the goals of the new hospital, he said, is to raise the Montreal hospital’s research profile.







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