Edmonton’s standalone Stollery Children’s Hospital to be built on University of Alberta campus

The new standalone Stollery Children’s Hospital will be located on the University of Alberta’s south campus in south Edmonton, the Alberta government revealed Monday.

The state-of-the-art pediatric facility will be built at the northeast corner of 122 Street and 51 Avenue – currently undeveloped farmland.

Calling it a “major step forward” in the project, the government says the site was chosen for its “large size, potential for future expansion and proximity to the university’s existing hospital.”

The new location is just 15 minutes from the current Stollery location.

“This location gives us the space and flexibility to plan a modern facility that puts children and families first,” said Alberta Minister of Infrastructure Martin Long.

The standalone Stollery will support pediatric care and address the increasing demand for specialized children’s health services in Edmonton and beyond, the province says.

“It’s a gift that we need and it means that our kids are gonna get just the best quality of care and the highest level of care and that’s what children should have,” said parent Jodi Richardson, whose daughter Emmy was born with a congenital spinal disorder.

Emmy has had several major surgeries at the Stollery and she will continue to rely on its care until she’s 18 years old.

“The Stollery is the reason Emmy is able to walk, run, stand,” said Richardson.

“They’ve literally saved her life more than once.”

The Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation (SCHF) is launching a “No Bounds” campaign to raise $1 billion for the hospital.

“This campaign will help build the new Stollery,” said Karen Faulkner, the SCHF’s president and CEO. “But it will also go further, because we believe kids deserve no bounds on their potential. Building a place from the ground up for kids will make care easier to access, allow for more spaces that reduce anxiety and heal hearts, and bring together the best minds in medicine, research and innovation.”

The province put $1 million towards the project in 2021; that figure was matched by the SCHF. An additional $11 million over three years is being earmarked by the provincial government for the planning and design phases.

The planning phase is scheduled to be complete in 2026, the UCP government says, adding the hospital will take five to eight years to build.

Alberta’s opposition NDP says the province took a long time to make this announcement, questioning the government’s motive.

“The current government’s had almost seven years to make this announcement,” said Sarah Hoffman, the NDP health shadow minister. “Today wasn’t about money. It wasn’t about timelines. It was just about a site. I wish the government would have come here today with a timeline and some money.”

But Richardson is just excited to see this next step, saying the best part of the plan is for more individual rooms, remembering difficult nights with her daughter.

“You’re tiptoeing around other people’s challenges and other people’s grandkids who are in pain and it’s just so much harder on the worst day of your life to also hear so many other people and children in pain,” the Edmonton mom said.

The current Stollery Children’s Hospital, which opened in 2001, is the second-largest children’s hospital in Canada by bed count. It provides care to some 300,000 children from across western Canada every year.

–With files from Hiba Kamal-Choufi