The majority of construction work for the CHUM French hospital and the MUHC English hospital should be complete by 2014, Premier Jean Chearest announced Thursday.
Phase one of the French hospital is slated to get underway later this spring and will involve expanding the University of Montreal teaching hospital's research centre.
Once the work on the new hospital at 1000 St. Denis St. is complete, the second phase of the project will begin. That phase involves rebuilding St. Luc Hospital, and is expected to be completed in 2019.
More details about the English hospital are expected to be released in the near future.
"The MUHC is going to announce in a few weeks time who is going to build the English-language hospital at the Glen Yards site," said CTV Montreal reporter Rob Lurie.
Once the first phase of the project is completed in 2014, the process of renovating the Montreal General Hospital will begin.
Charest said all Quebecer's deserve access to medical care in the language of their choice.
"If you walk into any of these hospitals you're going to hear a lot of people speaking English and French, no matter what," he said.
"If I had to quote one of the successes of Quebec, as far as I'm concerned, our hospital system is a reflection of our principles of social justice. When you walk into a hospital in Quebec, no one asks you what language you speak."
Construction costs for both projects were initially pegged at $2 billion. The price tag has now more than doubled, to at least $5 billion.
