The Alberta government has cancelled the $595-million Edmonton superlab project, saying it plans to invest health-care dollars elsewhere in the system.
The United Conservative Party, which formed government in April, had promised to cancel the project. It had been spearheaded by the previous NDP government.
Construction started early this year on a site at the University of Alberta South Campus.
The new government put a halt on construction three days after the April 16 election.
The project would have consolidated medical laboratory services for Edmonton under a single roof and put it under the control of Alberta Health Services.
The previous government also planned to pay DynaLife, the current service provider, $50 million when its contract ended on March 31, 2022.
“We’re standing by our commitment to cancel the expensive and disruptive superlab project and the ideologically driven plan to nationalize DynaLife,” Health Minister Tyler Shandro said in a news release Thursday.
“We’re going to put patients at the centre of the health system and invest health-care dollars where they’re most needed to strengthen our publicly funded health system and deliver better results for Albertans.”
The government said $23 million of the $595 million capital budget for the project has already been spent.
It said $50 million will be saved from the cancellation of the planned buyout of DynaLife.
Vendors will be compensated for the termination of contracts as required, Infrastructure Minister Prasad Panda said in the release.
The construction site will be restored, Panda added.
Alberta’s health system spends $770 million each year on laboratory medicine. About 2.3 million Albertans get lab tests annually, the government said.