Soaring material prices and rising labour costs caused the city to reconsider the procurement model it intends to use for the construction of a downtown event centre.

If constructed, the road would provide year-round access to mining sites in the province’s Ring of Fire, and connect the Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations to Ontario’s highway network.

Provincial investments will support a series of expansion and renovation projects among the network’s main campuses. The showpiece project calls for a new, 450-bed Birchmount Hospital.

The review will be conducted by the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Its aim is to assess how occupational illnesses in Ontario are identified, monitored and prevented.

The company will begin twinning the highway in the fall of this year with an expected completion date of 2026.