The Chief Executive Officer for South Eastman Health says expansion of Steinbach's Emergency Room has hit a snag. John Stinson says they received only one bid when the project went to tender and yet policy states there must be a minimum of three bids. "So that sealed bid never got opened. It was returned back to the proponent and we will be re-tendering. We'll make that recommendation to Manitoba Health based on the board's motion (Thursday) to split the project into two, to do a smaller tender for the renovation for the temporary Emergency Department in the Community Health Services Building and then a second tender for the larger project," says Stinson.

If Manitoba Health approves the move, South Eastman Health will soon call for tenders on the renovation project, "hopefully within the next three or four weeks", says Stinson. He adds "likely we'll have a tender for the larger part of the project sometime in late November, early December."

Stinson notes this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened on a major capital health project. "People are busy. Construction companies are busy. We didn't get as many bids as we'd like but I'm optimistic we will probably lose a couple of months from our timeline but it's not going to be super significant." Not unless they don't get the minimum three bid requirement a second time. "The reality is if we don't get three bids again we have to sit down with government and go, where is this project going. What are the challenges with it in what's happening. But I don't want to discourage people, I mean this is going to happen."

This delay could potentially impact the overall budget. Stinson says "It will make the budget a little higher, I think that. I mean maybe we'll get lucky and we'll still come in within what our estimates are based on things slowing down again in construction." The estimated budget is between $20-21 million.

This is a two year project that likely won't be complete before late fall of 2013.