---
title: "Sutcliffe says Ottawa will not pay for hospital cost overruns after province's share rises to $10 billion"
description: "Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told reporters Thursday that the City of Ottawa will not cover the sharply higher cost of building the new Civic Campus, after Ontario's infrastructure minister said the provincial share has grown from $2.1 billion to close to $10 billion."
canonical_url: "https://voche.me/on/ottawa-2026/news/ottawa-civic-campus-cost-2026-10-29"
last_updated: "2026-10-29T23:57:01.671Z"
---

Ontario Infrastructure Minister David Piccini told a committee on Wednesday that the province's share of the new Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus had grown from $2.1 billion to close to $10 billion. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe responded on Thursday by saying the City of Ottawa will not be paying the difference.

CTV News Ottawa reported Sutcliffe speaking to reporters at a separate event on Thursday. "The City of Ottawa is not going to cover billions and billions of dollars of additional costs for the hospital. That's not our jurisdiction," he said. "Health care's a provincial responsibility. Hospital construction is a provincial responsibility. So, if the cost of the project has gone up, then that's a question for the Ministry of Health."

## What the original plan said

The new Civic Campus, under construction near Dow's Lake, was originally projected to cost $2.8 billion. The province was to cover $2.1 billion, with a local share covering the remaining $700 million. The Ottawa Hospital Foundation launched a $500 million fundraising campaign to cover most of the local share. The foundation said earlier this year that it had reached 80 per cent of that goal, CTV News Ottawa reported.

The Ottawa Hospital also made a request to the City of Ottawa in 2022 for $150 million toward construction costs. Sutcliffe said Thursday that City staff have been asked to produce a report outlining how the City could contribute that amount. "When that report comes back, we'll consider it at council," he said.

## Province and hospital stay quiet

After Piccini's comments at the committee on Wednesday, both the province and the Ottawa Hospital declined to confirm the new price when CTV News Ottawa asked them directly. The province said its investments in Ottawa were part of a broader $64 billion provincewide plan. The Ottawa Hospital said construction timelines and costs were being finalized with partners and the Ministry of Health, and it would share more details "soon."

## Liberals demand answers

The Ontario Liberal Party put out a statement Thursday demanding the Ford government release a full, itemized breakdown of spending on the project and confirm that Ottawa residents would not be required to cover a higher local share. "There is no other job in which you can overspend by five times what you had originally estimated," said John Fraser, Interim Liberal Leader and MPP for Ottawa South, according to CTV News Ottawa.

Orléans MPP Stephen Blais told Newstalk 580 CFRA he wanted the province to keep the local share capped at the original estimate. He said some people close to the project were privately suggesting construction would not be finished until the early to mid 2030s, though neither the province nor the hospital has confirmed that timeline.

Ottawa residents can track Mayor Sutcliffe's decisions on the [/on/ottawa-2026/candidates/mark-sutcliffe](/on/ottawa-2026/candidates/mark-sutcliffe) page and follow City Council's response to the hospital funding question as it comes back to council.

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