Provincial party leaders face off on Waterford Hospital in debate

Three provincial party leaders squared off overthe state of the province's economy, income distribution, growth and innovation, expenditure and managementat Memorial University in St. John's Wednesday night.

Liberal Leader Dwight Ball, Progressive Conservative Leader Paul Davis and NDP Leader Earle McCurdy all participated in the pre-election debate, hosted by Collaborative Applied Research in Economics (CARE) with the economics department.

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Ball and McCurdyboth took aim atDavis for not moving ahead on plans to replace the aging Waterford Hospital.

"If you delay replacing a hospital that was built in the mid-1800s, just think about what I just said mid-1800s. That's the institution that we're looking at replacing," said Ball.

"Right now, I think it's responsible to look at all options that are available to us then make that decision, share that information with the people of the province, share the information with the people that are impacted by that, unlike what this premier is doing."

Davis said government is currently going through the process of getting information about the overall cost of replacing the Waterford, adding the province can't move forward until all the information is in.

"We can't afford to build a new Waterford Hospital, we can't afford to build a new penitentiary today and we can't afford to build a new court house today," said Davis.

"All of those things costs hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. My focus is on programs and services."

The leaders also got heated when talking about the rising cost of Muskrat Falls, and whether or itwas the right decision for the province.

All leaders were provided in advance with a list of questions and each given a few minutes to read their prepared statements.

The moderator conducted a 12-minute debate on thefour topics:theeconomy, income distribution, growth and innovation, expenditure and management.