A new $25-million-plus hospital for Watson Lake has jumped onto the radar.

The Yukon government is looking for a consulting firm to assess what it would take to convert the unfinished shell of the once-proposed multi-level care facility into part of a new hospital.

Construction of the incomplete facility began in 2005 with a number of controversial sole-source contracts handed out in the riding held by Premier Dennis Fentie.

The project is significantly behind schedule and well over the original $5.2-million budget. It has been ammunition for opposition parties citing the inability of the Yukon Party to manage major projects and public financing.

Earlier this month, the government issued a request for proposals that clearly sets a new direction for the unfinished shell. It now has a roof in its fourth season of construction, but no exterior siding nor interior electrical or mechanical work.

Opposition leaders agree the new direction for a hospital is virtually coming out of the blue. They suggest it is nothing more than an attempt by the government to find some way of covering up what has been a political white elephant from day one.

Both Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell and NDP Leader Todd Hardy warn the government's new direction may just mean digging a deeper hole for taxpayers to climb out of.

Neither Fentie nor Health and Social Services Minister Glenn Hart have responded to the Star's requests for interviews on the spending plans.

It remains unclear when the cabinet ordered a change in direction toward a new hospital and what will happen with the existing Watson Lake Hospital, built in 1975.

Also unclear is the estimated cost of the total hospital project, as the $25 million identified in the request for proposals is described as a preliminary estimate, which does not include furniture, hospital equipment or fixtures.

Under the published heading "Conceptual Consulting Services, New Hospital Watson Lake Yukon 2008", the request for proposals seeks a consulting firm to assess several aspects of the incomplete steel structure as it sits, including:

• structural changes required to bring the shell up to hospital code and post-disaster building standards;

• design and construction changes required to convert the multi-level care facility into suitable hospital floor space;

• requirements to relocate door and window openings, in order to meet hospital standards;

• what would be required to tear up the concrete floor slab to make the necessary plumbing changes to meet hospital standards;

• requirements to make adjustments to the elevator shafts, which may be too small for hospital use;

• requirements to deal with existing interior mould, if reports of existing mould are accurate.

• requirements to redesign the access roads and parking areas, and bring the grade up to ground-floor level to remove the need for stairs and ramps to enter the building;

The request for proposals was issued Sept. 10 and will close Sept. 30.

The schedule calls for the report on the assessment to be complete by Nov. 25, and the final conceptual design for the new hospital complete by Feb. 25.

"This is really an example of the fact that this Yukon Party government has completely lost their credibility to manage government financing and major government projects," the Liberal leader said this morning.

"This makes no sense at all."

The original budget of $5.2 million for the multi-level care facility has jumped to $10 million, and still there's nothing but a shell to show for it, Mitchell contends.

And now, he said, the government wants to ramp up the project by another $25 million-plus for construction alone, which doesn't include hospital equipment, furniture or fixtures.

Mitchell said it's interesting to see when a Yukon Party minister hands out even the most meagre financial support, there is great fanfare and photo opportunities.

On the other hand, when the government begins advancing a huge hospital proposal, there's not even a whisper, he pointed out, suggesting that says volumes in itself.

Hardy said he supports appropriate health care facilities for all Yukon communities.

But the proposed multi-level care facility for the premier's riding started out on the wrong foot with sole-source contracts for construction, engineering and design, and has been off the rails since, he maintained.

Hardy said he fears this new direction may be a case of putting more money into what was a badly conceived idea from the beginning.

"So are we going to end up with a hospital in Watson Lake that costs more than the new hospital in Whitehorse cost?"

Following a 2004 needs assessment, the government embarked on a plan to build the multi-level care facility as an attachment to the existing hospital, but with its own distinct space and environment, the request for proposal notes.

The original plan was to construct the facility, then fit it as a temporary hospital while the existing hospital was renovated. Once the hospital was renovated, the multi-level care facility would open as the extended care facility for Watson Lake's aging population.

A subsequent evaluation in January 2007, according to the request for proposals, showed that moving the hospital into the new multi-level care facility, and outfitting the new facility as a temporary hospital, then moving it all back again, would cost an uneconomical $7.7 million.

Watson Lake senior Joyce Armstrong explained this morning the Sign Post Seniors' Association told the government as far back as two years ago that its design for the multi-level care facility was unacceptable.

The rooms, she said, were box-like and tiny, and not something fitting for, or respectful of, a senior at the end of his or her years.

She did note, however, that the government's current plan to build a new 12-plex senior residential facility is widely supported in Watson Lake.

The land has already been purchased, and the drawings of the floor plans hang appreciably on the walls of the association's office, she pointed out.

The 12-plex, Armstrong emphasized, is not an extended care facility as the multi-level facility was intended to be.

Rather, it is a facility for healthy seniors who no longer want to live on their own, or want to shed the burden of managing a large house, she said.

Armstrong said without an extended care facility in Watson Lake, seniors who require the additional medical care will continue coming to Whitehorse, though the seniors in Watson Lake have always recognized that and accepted it as a reality.

Like everywhere else in Canada, finding qualified staff to manage extended health care facilities is difficult, and likely unrealistic for her community, she said.

"I think we have all accepted that reality."