OTTAWA, ON – Yesterday in an interview with Ottawa Citizen columnist David Reevely, Liberal minister Catherine McKenna blamed the National Capital Commission (NCC) for her decisions on the Ottawa Hospital. Below is Carleton Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre’s response:

“It is simply outrageous that after all of this McKenna would throw the NCC’s public servants under the bus for her interference. She is blaming the NCC for doing what she asked them to do.

“First, McKenna was the one who specifically asked the hospital to consider Tunney’s Pasture. (Source: http://www.iheartradio.ca/580-cfra?autoplay=1.2240836) They rejected the site twice because it did not meet patients’ needs. When the NCC recommended Tunney’s for a third time, the hospital rejected it for the third time.

“Second, McKenna praised the Tunney’s Pasture location. She “welcomed” the NCC’s recommended location, saying it was “great news” and met her criteria.

“Third, McKenna was the one who involved the NCC in the first place. It was completely her doing to ask the hospital to ‘review’ its locations then punt the matter to the NCC to conduct its own review. If she had not interfered our city would have been two years closer to building this new hospital.

“This has been McKenna’s mess from the beginning, so for her to now try to blame the NCC’s public servants is insulting,” Poilievre concluded.

 

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